A huge fire. Wall. For. Yet quite extraordinary pictures there lets cross live to our middle east correspondent paula sleazier whos in tel d aviv paula youve been following developments for the past number of hours now bringing us all up to date on all of these tragic developments in lebanon what is known at this stage what happened and indeed why it happened. Well we have a confirmation of 10 people who have been killed and according to the red cross hundreds injured but we do expect those figures to climb in the coming hours as we were hearing reports of people inside the rubble and Emergency Services desperately trying to reach them the hospitals have started turning people away because they simply cannot cope with the number of injured who have been brought to them now the 1st blast happened just over 3 and a half hours ago it was a massive blast people talk about a Mushroom Cloud over the city there was broken glass everywhere a building shaking eyewitnesses say complete devastation the areas been a disaster area and the scale of the damage has been said to be enormous earlier we heard from the Health Minister and he said that the number of people injured is very high with extensive damage now no confirmation at this stage as to what caused that initial blast but we are hearing that it was possibly an electrical spock the live in. Customs director saying it was caused by nitrates a warehouse where highly explosive materials are now the conflict in reports as to whether or not there was a 2nd blast and indeed where that blast happened but it is possible that the initial explosions may have stepped off the fuel tanks which could have caused a huge secondary blast as i say no confirmation yet as to the cause of these explosions and investigation is under way a national day of mourning has been called for tomorrow now the president has been briefed on the situation hes warned against making speculation but of course theres a lot of speculation as to whats been going on behind the scenes very. Early speculation just after this occurred paula. Possibly israel possibly hezbollah were involved but both israel has been given statements. Can you tell us whats being said as regards those parties. What we have heard from israeli officials who were speaking anonymously saying that in no way was israel involved in this in the last few days there has been a flare up of tensions along the israel lebanon border and particularly between israel and hezbollah so naturally there was some speculation that this might have been caused by his beloved sorry that it might be caused by israel and the israeli airstrike that it was quite short in terms of time that after the explosion happened that we heard israel denying this there was also other speculation as you correctly mentioned that his beloved might have been behind it this is a country that is particularly politically torch we had the foreign minister of assignment just a day ago we have a lot of corruption charges being leveled at various politicians so we have been on thats minded in an economic crisis and added to that is of course the whole coronavirus pandemic on the back of all of that was speculation that maybe his was behind this. But we have heard from his that he no way with they involved at this stage i must say it seems as if it was some kind of technical mishap but this is certainly the largest blast blasts that lebanon has seen in recent history paula thank you very much for bringing us right up to date on what may have occurred there in beirut in the port area paula sleeper and tell him. Well im happy to say about kharaj a lawyer specializing in the middle east joins us live on the program as well good to see you again. First of all youre initial thoughts on this at least 10 people dead we hear on quite extraordinary pictures coming out of the lebanese capital. Yes thank you very much for having me again we still dont know what happened we know that 10 people have died more than 100 people have been injured. Because of the explosion we might have some few clues of who did that but theres an explosion there have there had been some explosion before in iran and in lebanon so we still dont know whats going to happen or who did that but it might be some kind of hezbollah attack. By the israeli we still dont know whats going to whats that but its one of them i think both israel and hezbollah as our correspondents going through they have denied involvement but suspicions are are going to fall when you see the explosion and the blasts on the fire its so big and so huge and its affected so many people that theres going to be a lot of speculation out there particularly in the hours immediately after Something Like this. Yes theres going to be a lot of the speculation because as you might not that the economy of lebanon is on the eve of collapse. Unemployment is raising the money is losing the currency is losing all its value the country has a lot of economic problem so its it might be a bit. Of rafiq hariri trial whos going to be in few days theyre going to theyre going to give their verdict so i might murder trial of the legal even if thats the murder trial of the former Prime Minister rafiq hariri just after tell us a little bit about rafik hariri and then he. Yes so how are africa area was the Prime Minister of lebanon he was a sunni muslim he den was replaced after his that he well he was replaced by his son. So in lebanon polity you have the president has to be a create a christian maronite the Prime Minister has to be a muslim sunni the president of the speaker of the house of the parliament has to be a muslim pure so there is a big divide inside within in lebanon with lebanon polity thought people feel its hezbollah who committed this crime who killed their africare we saw on the verge of this very day so people might think it might be the hezbollah and other people might think it might be. In that take by israel because israel a few days ago or a few weeks ago had done the same if we had fewer explosion in iran saw people still dont know but its its kind of messy the whole lebanon is kind of messy with rafik hariri with the economy crisis and the with the unemployment going skywriting the lebanese Prime Minister has the. A day of mourning for the explosion in the in the port of beirut is the situation there from what youve seen over the last number of doesnt look as if its going to get even more tragic as rescue teams continue their work because there really is of the blast the aftermath looks quite extraordinary going on for kilometer after kilometer. I think its going to be its going to be very bad because usually when you have you have a terrorist attack theres always a day or 2 days of mourning and this is this is going this is going to be big because a few days ago as i told you before you had a few soldiers from hezbollah who try to sneak in israel and they were not arrested but they were captured they were seen by these really they had the time to. Come back in in lebanon and get back to the his well hezbollah territory so the situation in lebanon is very very very bad and it might get worse and worse as i told him because the economy the economy is on the eve of collapse people are on the streets every day and every night they feel that control of the lebanon some people think that its the European Countries that control lebanon and they leap and these people are sure that libyan has no power of it over its own territory. Crush just one point on that because weve weve seen or weve heard earlier allegations from israel but the port is a very significant area for hezbollah in previous attacks and they said not very long ago the Foreign Ministry in israel that it was somebody that needs to be maintained by lebannon you know the shock waves of whats going on here theres going to be a lot of talk about whether or not this was a possible target whether or not an attack happened at all but whether it was going to be in the future. Its its the part of lebanon that israel think that the what their weapons who who gets to live in and a comes from the port of lebanon whether its for the libyan army are more more or saw for the hezbollah for the hezbollah militia so israel is almost sure that all the weapons that are getting into lebanon are going through that port and going within the territory to the hezbollah in order for hezbollah israel or to defend itself from these very sore for israel this is a very important place and they want to be sure that they live in and that the lebanese government is controlling that port and not their. Thank you very much for giving us some insight there as you say as well we have to be kerflop by speculation up this stage but thanks very much for giving us some some bach growing into into. A new year history. A lawyer specializing in the middle east so we are speaking this blast this huge explosion in the lebanese capital which we know at this stage just killed at least 10 people it is expected to be much worse than the pictures as you can see here quite extraordinary and were gathering a lot of local people in the area to get their thoughts some one of them can join us on the program it is journalist al tough talk in roots can you describe to us what you heard what you saw and what the situation is right now welcome to the program. Up until now ambulances are rushing to the scene you have fire trucks also rushing to the scene to try and extinguish what is remaining of the fire the Lebanese Army says the percent of the fire hospital put off though as i said still fire trucks and ambulances all rushing to the scene a lot of bodies a lot of. People are being extracted from the venue or from the scene of the explosion at these 3 major hospitals in the lebanese capital beirut have announced that they come no longer accept any person now who were wounded obviously fired the explosion which ripped through the lebanese capital as a day out there on 6 pm local time around 6 pm local time we heard a massive explosion and the lebanese capital namely in the ports the 1st and the preliminary reports claimed fireworks that. There was some sort of accident or an electric. Of some sort that caused the accident that the fireworks. Lit on fire however later on the director of lebanons general security lieutenant general. That there had actually been a large quantities of Sodium Nitrate which had been confiscated from a ship recently that had been stored thats one of the apparently according to what mr ibrahim is saying. The fire from the fireworks to the nitrates. Which was confiscated obviously from the ship but now this explosion is by far the worst explosion that lebanon has witnessed since the assassination of former lebanese Prime Minister how do you back in 2004 and it comes at a very critical time for the country at this ports where the explosion had taken place was only open 5 days ago after a lengthy with 19 locked down lebanon. Its also struggling is it is very much on the brink of economic collapse its in talks with the i. M. F. With the International Monetary fund asking for economic assistance in a very critical time and now with this port with that with what has happened today out this court this is one of the main gateways which lebanon uses to bring in food to the country so this is also another major crisis looming over the country or there has been added to the series of crises right after 1000 and Economic Situation in lebanon. You said at the start of d your your report thorough stuff the hospitals are asking for theyre essentially full theyre centrally overwhelmed theyre not letting more people in we initially heard there are 10 deaths people poles from the rubble near the area does it look to you from what youve seen from what youve heard that it could get much worse than that in terms of fatalities unfortunately unfortunately yes especially from the us i think that the poor had a lot of stuff on the inside at the time of the explosions rubble is mounting in that area so we dont know whats under the rubble but i think we should expect that the number of fatalities is going to rise also we have to point out that the radius of the explosion or the blast was felt up to 10 kilometers away and it was even sensed or heard that in neighboring cypress so you can imagine just how massive it was i dont think the number of wounded is also going to wise because some people were wounded the by the last shattering into their apartments they were in their own homes and we were wounded as well as the people who were in the vicinity of the explosion but i think the number of fatalities is going to rise mainly because there were a lot of. Time of the explosion in the port i think unfortunately we should expect that the number of fatalities is going to rise just before you go one of the things as were looking at the video well tough. Is that we seem to see a number of blocks there were reports of at least one follow up explosion after a fuel tanks caught fire is there more to know about just to be clear and what happened here. Well these are the words of looked at in general are busted by him who is the director of love in all security general security this is the only official who has outright spoken about the fact that there was some sort of accident firebird people its trying to another depot where Sodium Nitrate had been confiscated and stored and i dont know i think these explosions have a kind of domino you know. This is the wires them trying to. Mend and to even that be one of the headquarters of lovenox Power Company which was also destroyed and brought down by the by the you know by how the explosion was. By how big the explosion was yeah what was already a terrible situation economic. You know mixed with covert 19 and then this happens its just a dreadful day isnt it for beirut listen thank you very much for coming on the program and sharing what you know at this stage. Journalist in bay ridge thank you. Well lets get a recount of whats going on in our breaking news so far youre watching our Team International it is 947. 00 here in moscow the same time in beirut where a powerful explosion has shaken the lebanese capital leaving many killed or injured weve just heard the Lebanese Army has taken control of all districts near the port area that was where the blast happened the interior minister has said that the calls of the explosion is. So far all know in the were early reports of possible fireworks large amounts of been in the area just echoed from one to another leading to a number of. Confirmed both israel and the Lebanese Group hezbollah have denied any involvement there had been a lot of initial allegations that perhaps either or both were involved in youre seeing here just absolutely devastating scenes the port area in. Beirut now the explosion was reportedly followed by a 2nd front when a fuel caught fire causing. The blaze destroying buildings over a wide area stringer the local journalist we were just speaking to some 10 kilometers away thats actually a run where the. Me in the airport the International Airport is in the sights of the city there was broken broken doors as far away. The shock waves indeed could be felt far away were talking a lot of kilometers maybe 150 kilometers in cypress neighboring country videos posted online as youre seeing here were putting as many of them as were getting together just to give you a picture from locals in the area and also from the sea these are from you can see when many hundreds of meters that plume of smoke after the initial blast off in to the covering central cars were overturned streets blocked by rubble that is the issue at the moment were having a lot of difficulty trying to get about how many people many casualties there are and many fatalities 10 up this stage they were pulled from the rubble but it could be much much worse hospitals by the way reportedly full of people injured in the blast the exact numbers are not known on this all comes out a time of deep political unrest in lebanon constant street rallies. Over the past few weeks against the governments handling of the worst economic slump since the civil war which ended 3 decades ago and theres also been a recent escalation on the border with israel which has accused hezbollah fighters of trying to infiltrate is really top of all the there is the upcoming verdict in the trial over the assassination of former Prime Minister rafik hariri who was killed in a car bombing in 2005 a u. N. Tribunal is to to issue that for addicts all on friday. Or freelance journalist or on holiday is in the roots described to us what hes saying. In the poem gloucesters your stock in trade to a great downtown bakery thoughts large parts of the everything he does in the world so i made it up the road its taken a significant amount of people been injured. Down suited me she happened to like the buildings the infrastructure in the horary the devastated. Shops around you been completely destroyed you see behind me you know ill tell you that in terms of the importance of letting the speccy riot the infrastructure of the Health Care System to be dissipated very much strength from the only during and after demi and demi to this country the area that i mentioned taking a lot of the images. Of the right so its been easy z. Z. Z. Very very nicely and cosseted the whole very very very limited. A lot of reports coming in as to what occurred how many are injured we have just heard from the head of the Lebanese Red Cross saying that at least 2200 people are injured in the explosion. Is just coming up to 4 hours after it occurred well lets now across live on the program to something you know all the some gulf states a little to get a sense of his take on what occurred here. Alison quite extraordinary footage video coming out of those blasts explosion so far theres little chlorate see in fact there is no official verdict as to what caused this blast we know that both hezbollah and israel have denied involvement there had been early speculation enough they were involved how does it look to you at this stage. Well thank you for having me. I dont want to speculate because the potential sources of the explosion are numerous. And i still would not discount an Israeli Attack given the recent tensions on the southern border of lebanon and claim that fighters want to get in also. Prime minister benjamin netanyahu. Legal problems and. The convenience that a war