Protesters in Lebanon demanded change following a massive ammonium nitrate explosion that exacerbated an existing economic crisis.
Thousands of demonstrators faced tear gas and rubber bullets in clashes with police in Beirut, Lebanon on Saturday in protests sparked by a massive explosion in the Lebanese capital last week that killed more than 150, injured around 6,000, and left about 300,000 people without homes. Experts say the blast, one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in recent history, and one whose causes are still unclear, has dramatically intensified political and economic crises that preceded the explosion, while further corroding public trust in Lebanon’s government. Thousands of protestors took to the streets in the city center, some gathering peacefully, and some throwing stones. Demonstrators chanted slogans including, “The people want the fall of the regime” — a popular chant during the Arab Spring in 2011 — and “Revolution, Revolution.” Protesters also held posters addressed to the country’s leaders that bore messages like, “Leave, you are all killers,” and signs commemorating the lives of people killed by the explosion. A group of protestors broke into the foreign ministry and burned a portrait of Lebanese President Michel Aoun. Others forced their way into the Association of Lebanese Banks. When demonstrators tried to remove a barrier in order to enter the parliament building, police fired tear gas at them. Police also fired live ammunition into the air in an attempt to get crowds to disperse. The origins of the explosion that have spurred the protests are not yet known. On Tuesday, two explosions in Beirut’s port area sent a red mushroom cloud thousands of feet into the air above the city. Lebanese officials say that over 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate, which is used to make both bombs and fertilizer, had been stored there for six years without safety measures. Lebanon’s president said on Friday that the government was investigating whether the explosion was triggered by a bomb, negligence, an accident or something else.
