(CNN) Beirut has long been synonymous with the word explosion. The city was the main flashpoint of Lebanon’s 15-year civil war, one of the world’s longest. And in the last 15 years alone, it has witnessed a string of assassinations, a days-long civil conflict, a month-long international war, and years of economic and political turmoil.
Throughout these decades, the residents of Beirut tried to show the world that they were more than the sum of their crises. That for millions of Lebanese and hundreds of thousands of refugees living there, home boasted vistas of green hills against an azure blue coastal backdrop. That deep communal bonds were built there, and enterprise and art proliferated on the anxiety-ridden streets. That the city was quintessentially human because of its ability to conquer the deluge of problems that sprung from one of the world’s most tense geopolitical fault-lines.
But as a massive explosion from the country’s main port ripped through Beirut and its outskirts on Tuesday, its people seemed to have finally been rendered powerless.
The aftermath of Tuesday’s blast is seen at the port in Beirut.
The blast, which caused damage some 10 kilometers (6 miles) away, was the worst single violent event the city had ever seen. Whole neighborhoods lay in tatters. Hundreds of thousands of the city’s residents were displaced. The streets were covered in shards of glass. People sat on sidewalks outside their destroyed houses, their faces soaked in tears. Screaming Beirutis frantically looked for their loved ones under the rubble. The cries of bloodied babies reverberated in hospital wards full of the wounded. Some of the doctors operated on survivors under the lights of cellphones because of the city’s frequent and long power outages.
In a city that was long a hodgepodge of political, religious and economic differences, the damage spared no one. At least 135 people are dead, with dozens more missing, according to the health minister. More than 4,000 people have been injured.
Beirut’s port — Lebanon’s main lifeline with the outside world — was obliterated and the vast majority of the city’s residents found themselves trapped in a seemingly endless sequence of desperate, apocalyptic scenes. Silence fell over conflict-seasoned inhabitants. The mysterious event prompted speculation, but sorrow seemed to have eclipsed rage.
Source: CNN
