Three days after the explosions that blew the lebanese capital, Beirut, rescue workers international are always, Friday 7 August, in search of survivors. The Beyrouthins hope to see the return of their missing relatives in the disaster. "I expect to learn that you have been pulled alive from the rubble, habibi [my dear] ", wrote on Twitter Emily Hasrouty, the sister of an official of the port 38-year-old, who disappeared in the silos. "I knocked on all the doors to hear from you, and now that the wait is almost over, I am paralyzed by fear ", she added.
Near the epicenter of the blast, near elevators giant grain destroyed, the rescuers French, Italian, German and others coordinate their efforts. On Friday morning, four bodies were found by rescuers. The disaster has killed at least 150 people dead and over 5,000 injured, dozens missing and hundreds of thousands of homeless in the neighborhoods devastated family, fueling the anger of the people against the political class, accused of incompetence and corruption.
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international Assistance
The international aid is rushed to Beirut, where the French president Emmanuel Macron is rendered Thursday, calling for an international investigation on this explosion caused according to the authorities by a fire in a warehouse where were stored for six years 2 700 tons of ammonium nitrate, a chemical that is highly flammable. Emmanuel Macron has met with lebanese leaders, politicians, among them members of Hezbollah, and representatives of the civil society. He called for a "profound change" on the part of the leaders, announcing that it would "in the next few days," a conference on aid for Lebanon, in the sinking economic for several months.
Since the explosion Tuesday evening, the families of the disappeared are precipitated at the port for news of their loved ones. The "particularity" of the tragedy in Beirut ? "The epicenter is a few meters from us, so that in an earthquake, it is often several hundreds of meters under the earth ", told the Agence France-Presse colonel Vincent Tissier, who leads a team of 55 members of French civil security. "Things are collapsing, in general, by layers, by floor. Here, everything has been sprayed. "
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rescuers russians, wading through the corn, conduct their research while the excavators remove containers or shredded. The teams of the civil defense lebanese are watching anxiously for a sniff round a crater dug under a crane failed. A worrisome calm reigns in the port, only broken by the sounds of machines cleaning down the huge expanse of rubble, mounds to have no end of twisted iron and disjointed.
solidarity
In a capital city with the air of revelation, as the authorities have not put in place any device to help the citizens, hundreds of Lebanese mobilized, in a vast outpouring of solidarity, to continue the operations of clearing or the home of the homeless. Several countries among which France, have sent medical equipment and health as well as field hospitals. The european Union has made 33 million euros in emergency and the u.s. military has sent three shipments of water, food and medicines. Aid of Iran, the united arab Emirates and saudi Arabia were expected Friday. In the huge city sportive Beirut, Russia has installed a field hospital, setting up a score of tents, medical where the first patients began to arrive, the hospitals of the capital being saturated.
on Thursday evening, the security forces have resorted to tear gas in the centre of the city to disperse dozens of protesters enraged by the incompetence and corruption of the authorities. Calls are circulating on social networks for an anti-government protest Saturday, under the theme " Hang them ". The lebanese authorities claim that the warehouse exploded after a fire. Port authorities, customs services and certain security services were all aware that materials, hazardous chemicals were stored, but they are rejected each other's responsibility. In addition to the ammonium nitrate, the military prosecutor referred to the presence of " materials highly flammable and wicks slow ", according to a press release. Sixteen officials of port and customs authorities have been arrested and detained in the course of the investigation.
