the from our correspondent, sean dilley. prime minister on the offensive at this east london school. he is hoping his message will hit the mark. look at that! boris johnson hoping his message will hit the mark. look at that! borisjohnson is seeking to convince parents and teachers that schools in england can safely reopen in september, despite warnings by government advisers that the country may have reached the limit of what can safely reopen. it's not right that kids should just spend more time out of school. it's much betterfor their spend more time out of school. it's much better for their health, spend more time out of school. it's much betterfor their health, their mental well—being, obviously there are educational prospects, if everybody comes back to school full—time in september. it is our moral duty as a country to make sure that happens. previous plans to reopen primary school classrooms before the holidays fell flat amidst concerns about a virus the country they knew very little about. now the government is point

this report from sean dilley contains some distressing scenes. explosion it was a catastrophic explosion. what?! the blast was heard 150 miles away. no! another view from moments earlier shows a fire in beirut port. authorities say the flashes were caused by fireworks. but then... explosion alarm blares ..as the sound of the explosion rang out across the city, windows smashed and buildings were destroyed. from the streets beirut could only watch as the carnage unfolded. translation: we were at home. we heard what sounded like fireworks. we thought it was a container in the port that was on fire. a few seconds later, we were flying through the air. already heavily stretched by the covid crisis, beirut‘s hospitals were overwhelmed by casualties in need of urgent treatment. translation: we have at least 300 wounded in the hospital right now. we have six operating suites that are still operating right now, and this keeps filling up by another group that needs attention. we have about four to five in intensive care, we have three that arrived dead. ev

sean dilley, bbc news.ing shake—up to boost house—building in england is being unveiled by ministers today. new homes and hospitals will be granted automatic permission to be built under reforms set out by the government. housing secretary robert jenrick says the fast—track plans will cut red tape and kick—start the economy but critics fear they could lead to a generation of slum dwellings. our political correspondent jessica parker is in westminster. jessica, how significant are these announcements? good morning to you. more announcement on housing. how significant are these? potentially very significant. the government is talking about a major overhaul of the planning system and this idea of designating land into three categories. one would be growth and thatis categories. one would be growth and that is we this idea of so—called automatic planning permission. that does not mean any developer can turn up does not mean any developer can turn up in yourfield next does not mean any developer can turn up in y

sean dilley, bbc news.ass abiad is the head of the university hospital in beirut, the largest public hospital in lebanon, and we can speak to him now. how many people have you had to see and what condition are they in? we have received almost 200 casualties, we have admitted more than 22 cases to our intensive care unit. what sort of injuries have people been suffering? initially, most of the people who were coming, they were coming in tens, were suffering from glass injuries, or who had been thrown up in the air from the glass injuries, or who had been thrown up in the airfrom the impact of the blast. then later the ambulances started arriving from the blast site and they were bringing in people who had more serious injuries. how many would you say are 110w injuries. how many would you say are now critical? we have about 18 patients in our critical units and we still have some patients in the emergency room. we are waiting to see whether we can find places for them in our hospital, or they have to be trans

sean dilley, bbc news.f the rafic hariri university hospital in beirut. thank you forjoining us. we appreciate your time at such a busy time for you. first of all, for our viewers, was the hospital damaged in the blast? we had some material damage but nothing that stopped us from continuing with our regular operations. regular operations you say but this is far from regular. how under pressure is the hospital and your colleagues right now? the night of the explosion, we suddenly had tonnes of casualties arriving on our emergency department, with all sorts of injuries, whether it is from last injuries, crashing injuries, things falling on them or flying in the air and then more serious casualties from the scene of the blast itself. at the same time, as the reference hospital for the covid patients, we were receiving covid patients, we were receiving covid patients, we were receiving covid patients as we are in the midst of a second wave here in lebanon and a number of cases is rising. now one of the unfortun

sean dilley, bbc news.f the screen as we look there. it gives you a real sense of some of the immediate devastation close by. we know the scale of the explosion, there was a lot of damage a lot further away. let's speak to our correspondence in beirut for us. we are seeing a helicopter still dropping water over what must be the remains of the fire that exists. a very good morning to you. we understand the figures of those who have been killed, just recently, have gone up to 100. can you give us a recently, have gone up to 100. can you give us a sense recently, have gone up to 100. can you give us a sense of what the latest information coming to you is? the rescue operation has been going throughout the night. it is still ongoing now in the morning. our estimate of at least 4000 injured and many people need hospitalisation. we can still hear ambulances moving around in the city this morning, and basically trying to move people from one hospital to the other because most of the hospitals are overloaded with c

sean dilley reports.rning from their first day back in the classroom. schools and teachers in england will be watching closely to see what lessons they can take a of their return in september. we have some hay, some straw. can we incorporate that? yesterday, the westminster government pointed to an as yet unpublished report by public health england that they say will show children are less likely to contract covid—i9 than adults. spin on 2a hours and they seem less keen to discuss another expected finding that older pupils could be as likely to spread the infection as the general population. but the prime minister says he is confident schools will be ready. i think schools and teachers over the summer and in these few months have done a fantasticjob of getting their schools ready. i was going around schools yesterday looking at the preparations that have been made both in primary and in secondary to get ready for everybody going back in september. i have no doubt that it can be done safely. schools are do

sean dilley, bbc news. go live to beirut, we are hearing from the government in the uk that hms enterprise, the royal navy ship, is going to be sent to survey the damage caused to the port of beirut, it's currently in cyprus and it won't be actually sent to beirut until lebanese authorities decide when the work will be most effective. hms enterprise is one of two survey ships operated by the royal navy and its experts will be able to examine and map the sea and assessed the damage and depth of the sea bed around the port which, of course, will be important, in terms of the recovery and rebuilding effort there in beirut. let us now go live to beirut and our middle east correspondent, lina sinjab. bring us up—to—date with the situation on the ground, the efforts to search for any more survivors and, of course, for those who have sadly died as well, because it is expected the death toll will rise. as you can hearfrom expected the death toll will rise. as you can hear from the sound around me, the sirens of the

sean dilley reports. the prime minister on the offensive at this east london school.is hoping his message will hit the mark. look at that! borisjohnson is seeking to convince parents and teachers that schools in england can safely reopen in september, despite warnings by government advisers that the country may have reached the limit of what can safely reopen. it's not right that kids should spend more time out of school. it's much betterfor their health, their mental well—being, obviously their educational prospects, if everybody comes back to school full—time in september. it is our moral duty as a country to make sure that happens. previous plans to reopen primary school classrooms before the summer holidays fell flat amidst concerns about a virus the country then knew very little about. now the government is pointing to as yet unpublished research which it contends shows little evidence of coronavirus spreading in educational settings. the prospect of reopening schools has not met with universal support, however. some union officials have questioned whether school