Explosions in Beirut: the images decrypted step by step

Several amateur videos make it possible to document in a fairly precise way the course of the explosion which devastated part of Beirut. It all started with a major fire in a warehouse on the port which drew the attention of many witnesses. Although the exact cause of this fire is not yet known, the earliest videos show thick gray smoke rising from it, accompanied by powerful "crackles" and flashes of light.

To specialists, it looks furiously like a fireworks blaze. This was confirmed to the media on Wednesday morning by the director of customs, Badri Daher. It also specifies that they were stored right next to an imposing customs seizure in 2013 of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, a compound sadly known for its explosiveness. He was responsible for the AZF disaster in Toulouse in 2001, but also for the explosion of a boat in Brest in 1947.

Read also: Ammonium nitrate, a hundred years of industrial disasters

Reddish smoke of nitrogen dioxide. AFP

The reddish smoke that escapes

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