Beirut

[EggBoxes]

Holy shit. Just seeing this now on Twitter.

It's horrific. I just don't see how that is a firework factory explosion. There's more to it.

Thoughts are with all those in Beirut. It's unbelievable :(

Reports saying it’s an explosion in a firework factory.

I can't comprehend what I'm seeing.

Which triggered another explosion in a nearby nitrate factory

Yes, the government have been quick with the fireworks story which is blatantly not true.

Incredible shock wave. I fear the numbers will quickly escalate from the reported "12 injured".

I think it is a firework explosion one of the videos I saw on Twitter - before the HUGE explosion showed lots of sparks etc at the start of this.

It’s shocking. Even if it is a firework factory big questions need to be asked as to exactly what caused said fire - but I’m guessing they won’t beZ

I am avoiding the obvious explanation, as I think the initial fire and then explosion doesn't make complete sense. If it was a nuke as some are suggesting you wouldn't see the inital fire (you can see mini explosions on the online footage)

I think this is possibly the more plausible one though:

KMC @mccoyspace
I think that Beruit explosion was an explosion in a fireworks depot that triggered a much larger flour silo explosion. That kind of a fuel-air explosion is essentially a thermobaric bomb - which is second only to nukes in terms of power.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_explosion

If you look at the article there is a history of accidents of this type of explosion. One in China in 1942 killed over 1500 people.

What caused the inital explosion is the bigger question, and whether it was a fireworks depo or a military depo, still remains though.

The videos are horrifying, it's just awful whatever's happened.

The mushroom cloud and blasts are horrific. It does look like fireworks might be involved as in some of the videos you can see what looks like fireworks or ammunition firing off before the larger explosion. But god, I’ve never seen anything like it. Thinking of them all.

The video clips I've been seeing are astonishing. Thoughts are with all those affected.

I’m hoping it’s a tragic accident rather than an Israeli strike

FFS!! Please read up on it before spouting bullshit.

Awful
In the 1970s, Beirut was known as The Paris of the Middle East .

It look absolutely horrific, I've never seen anything like it 🙁

Such shitty timing, they have had a crap year with Coronavirus, not only in terms of health but also the economic fall out. We have friends there and they haven't even been able to access their bank accounts for months, hyperinflation, people starving. And now this.

I live in Cyprus and it was heard here, island wide.

Lebanon has been protesting for months. Wonder why. I guess politics doesn't work for the locals.

Places like that have a terrible reputation for local governance. So stuff we take for granted, safety rules gets overlooked there.Money just goes into the pockets of the corrupt.

I was in Beirut in the 70's. It was known as the Paris of the Middle East. Girls walking around in hotpants and very liberal. Oh, how things change....

So sad. Those poor people....

Just seen it on the news, horrific, it looked like a mushroom cloud

Its so big a friend in Cyprus was able to clearly hear it, very scary, there must be so so many casualties.

It happened in the Netherlands 20 years ago, so please hold off on the conspiracy theories for now at least. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enschede_fireworks_disaster

Beirut is a glorious place, this is heart breaking.

I've seen another suggestion along the same lines as the previous that its a grain elevator with 20 silos thats gone up.

Looks like lots of small explosions, so could be fireworks, some articles say that explosives are stored in that part of the port, so it is possible that’s why it’s so large an explosion

"BREAKING — The Beirut explosion caused by highly explosive sodium nitrate confiscated from a ship more than a year ago and were placed in one of the warehouses located in the port — Sources to LBCI"