Beirut explosion rocks Lebanon's capital city

The US State Department is “aware of at least one US citizen killed, and several more injured, by the explosion” in Beirut, a spokesperson said Wednesday.

“All US Chief of Mission personnel in Beirut are safe and accounted for and US Embassy Beirut is open,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said they are urging “US citizens in the affected areas who are safe to contact their loved ones directly and/or update their status on social media.”

“If you are in the affected area and need immediate emergency services, please contact local authorities. We urge US citizens to avoid the affected areas / shelter in place and follow the directions of local authorities,” they said.

Hospitals in Beirut are overwhelmed with casualties, with four of its hospitals out of service due to damage by the explosion. Even under this already high level of strain, Firass Abiad, CEO of Rafik Hariri University Hospital, says the situation will escalate and the death toll will climb further.

“I think that it's very likely that those numbers will increase. What we are hearing today from some of the EMS services that are sweeping buildings, that are in the vicinity of the blasts, is that they are finding bodies,” he said.

The crisis comes to the city and its hospitals amid already existing challenges.

Rafik Hariri University Hospital was already running low on its medical supplies due to the financial crisis in Lebanon when Covid-19 hit, Abiad said. And in this backdrop of a surge in cases during a second wave, came the casualties from Tuesday’s explosion, completely overwhelming the hospital. Now, it’s about to run out of supplies.

The financial crisis, the coronavirus pandemic and the explosion has put his team “in the middle of a perfect storm,” he added.

The way the staff at the hospital has reacted to the crisis has been “silver lining,” Abiad said.

“When this happened, part of my staff were finishing their shift and going home. And they just came back,” he said. “They were filled with empathy toward the patients and kindness. And I think the only hope I see with all of this is the ability of the human spirit to endure these hardships.”

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UK will send 5 million GBP (approximately $6.6 million) in aid to Lebanon and will also provide medical and search and rescue experts to help in the aftermath of the Beirut blast, Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told reporters on Wednesday.

Raab said he had spoken to the Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab, and that a British Navy ship was "in the area" and ready to help. 

At least 100 people are dead and 4,000 wounded following an explosion in Lebanon's capital city of Beirut. While it is still unclear what caused the explosion, the city is decimated with thousands of residents left homeless, a medical system strained and up to $5 billion worth of damage.

You can help raise funds for supplies and assistance so desperately needed by clicking the button in this link.

Several charities are on the ground providing medical care, shelter, supplies and other desperately needed services to help the city recover and rebuild.

You can contribute by clicking here.

A Catholic church in Beirut was televising its Tuesday mass as part of its Covid-19 safety protocols, but it was interrupted when the massive explosion went off.

Video of the service shows parts of the ceiling falling as a priest ran for cover, getting injured in the process.

Pope Francis has called on people to pray for Lebanon in the aftermath of Tuesday’s deadly explosion.

Watch the moment here from Al Hurra TV:

The death toll for Tuesday’s blast increased to 135, Lebanon’s Health Minister Hamad Hassan told Al-Manar television.

Another 5,000 people are wounded and dozens more are still missing, he said. 

The office of the Paris prosecutor said in a statement on Wednesday that 21 French nationals were injured in the blast in Beirut.

This has prompted the Prosecutor's Office to open an "investigation for unintentional injury," the statement says, a standard procedure when French nationals are injured abroad, a source close to the investigation told CNN. 

French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Beirut on Thursday to show “solidarity” with the Lebanese people in the aftermath of Tuesday’s disastrous explosion, according to the Twitter account of the Lebanese presidency.

Ghassan Hasrouty worked in the port in Beirut where the massive explosion took place. He went to work Tuesday morning, and that’s the last time his family saw him. Now, his daughter Tatiana Hasrouty said she is considering the possibility that he’s trapped under rubble.

Hasrouty expressed her frustration with the government’s response to the disaster, saying the authorities are not searching the blast site.

“No authority is searching for them where they are,” Hasrouty says. “They say they don't have the capabilities, they don't have machines or construction machines to remove the rocks to find them. But we know for him and other workers of his, they are stuck there.”

“We don't really know what to do,” she added. "It's really frustrating and devastating.”

She said no authority has contacted the family.

Watch Tatiana's plea:

CNN's senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman went inside a home overlooking the port where Tuesday’s massive explosion took place in Beirut. The home was inhabited by an elderly couple.

Looking out through the walls of the home that have collapsed, Wedeman describes the state of the warehouse that exploded. What was simply dry ground before, Wedeman says, is now a crater, with water flowing into the area.

The Lebanese government has committed to conducting a transparent investigation into the explosion, but Wedeman says it is “scant consolation” to the families of those killed, injured and missing.

Beirut's governor said in an interview earlier today that at least 300,000 people have been displaced from their homes by the blast.

Go inside the home damaged by the explosion: