Ololade Adeyanju & Reuters/
A massive explosion in the Lebanese capital of Beirut has left at least 10 people dead.
The explosion also reportedly destroyed the home of the former prime minister, Saad Hariri
The Future Movement Party confirmed that ex-PM is safe, but the country’s health minister said the blasts had caused a “very high number of injuries” and huge damage.
Medical sources told Reuters that at least 10 people been killed by the explosion, which appeared to follow a fire – the cause of which is unknown – at the port.
Shocking footage shows smoke billowing from the port area shortly before an enormous fireball explodes into the sky and covers the city in a huge cloud.
Security sources told Reuters the blast occurred where there are warehouses housing explosives, although it was not immediately clear what caused the blast or what kind of explosives were in the warehouses.
Sources close to Lebanon’s militant group, Hezbollah, denied theories the blast was an Israeli strike on a weapons facility.
The explosion comes at a time of heightened tensions in the Middle Eastern country which is is passing through its worst economic and financial crisis in decades.
Miles from the scene of the blast, balconies were knocked down, ceiling collapsed and windows were shattered, while local media carried images of people trapped under rubble, some bloodied.
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