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The northern section of a series of previously damaged grain silos in Beirut collapsed on Tuesday after slowly burning for weeks inside the block when grain trapped inside caught fire.
The silo was first damaged in August 2020 when a blast exploded at a nearby port warehouse storing ammonium nitrate fertilizer, killing more than 200 people, injuring 7,000 people and destroying 77,000 apartments. was destroyed.
Lebanon in crisis marks one year after horrific Beirut bombing
Tuesday’s collapse created a cloud of dust over the port city and destroyed eight other damaged silos in the northern block of the site.
The northern portion of the silo had been slowly tilting since the first explosion two years ago, but the severity of the site’s deterioration began to accelerate after a fire broke out last month.
Tuesday’s collapse comes just weeks after one section of the silo fell on July 31st More collapses followed on the second anniversary of the August 4 blast.
Lebanese leaders warned in July that explosives ‘could destroy’ Beirut, report says
The site has been evacuated for a long time and it is believed that no one was injured in the collapse.
In August, the United Nations said the families of victims who died in the explosion were “still awaiting justice” and called for an international investigation into the deadly event.
“This tragedy marked one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in recent memory, yet the world has done nothing to find out why it happened,” the United Nations Office for Human Rights said in a statement. Hmm.
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The Lebanese government ordered the destruction of the remaining damaged silos in April, but the decision was delayed after families of the victims protested the move and claimed the silos could contain information useful to investigations. was withheld.
Others have asked that the silo be left as a memorial to those who died in the 2020 deadly blast.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.