Lebanese banks will reopen on Thursday and the central bank’s governor will convene the bank’s board to take steps to address the catastrophe caused by an explosion on Tuesday that rocked the capital Beirut, a central bank statement said on Wednesday.
One hundred people died and more than 4,000 were injured when an explosion went off at the port of Beirut on Tuesday.
President Michel Aoun said that 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, used in fertilizers and bombs, had been stored for six years at the port without safety measures, and he said that was “unacceptable.”
He called for an emergency cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
Officials did not say what caused the blaze that set off the blast. A security source and local media said it was started by welding work being carried out on a hole in the warehouse.
“What we are witnessing is a huge catastrophe,” the head of Lebanon’s Red Cross George Kettani told a local broadcaster. “There are victims and casualties everywhere.”
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