dewline | NEWS: Beirut Explosion

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Major explosion in downtown Beirut today.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/lebanon-beirut-explosion-1.5673644

Do any of you have friends or relatives or colleagues there?

Thankfully no.

Almost certainly acts of terrorism given the names concerned and the trial which is going on there atm.

No one seems to have demanded to be blamed yet for this. Whatever this is.

At least for the moment, the reports I've seen suggest a building by the waterfront caught on fire and turned out to have explosive materials in storage: https://www.npr.org/2020/08/04/898969935/massive-explosion-rocks-beirut-damaging-buildings-and-shattering-windows

So maybe a terrible Halifax-explosion-type accident, rather than terrorism.

A Halifax 1917-type situation would not surprise me as being at the root of this. Industrial accidents still happen.

I'm worried that even if it is accidental, lots of people will blame terrorism anyway and political tensions will rise even higher.

Apparently there was also an attack on the compound of the family involved in the trial so it could be two separate incidents.