Several hundred Lebanese organized a march to the presidential palace on Saturday 12 September to denounce the negligence of the state and the lack of progress in the investigation into the deadly explosion at the port, 40 days after the tragedy that devastated a part of the capital.
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Left from the courthouse in Beirut where they had gathered in the early afternoon, the demonstrators, some with Lebanese flags in black, marched to the road leading to the presidential palace, but were stopped by a large military device that had been deployed.
Chanting slogans of the protest movement born last fall against the entire ruling class accused of corruption and incompetence, some protesters called for the resignation of President Michel Aoun.
Hundreds of supporters of the head of state had also gathered in the area, and the army tried to buffer the two camps.
Clashes broke out between some protesters and the army, which fired in the air to separate the protesters.
The explosion of August 4, attributed by the authorities to the storage "
without precautionary measures
" for six years of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate in a warehouse at the port, killed more than 190 people, injured 6,500 others and left 300,000 people homeless.