BEIRUT, LEBANON (8:30 A.M.) – On Thursday, the Lebanese authorities took 16 people in custoday as part of an investigation into the explosion at the Port of Beirut last Tuesday.
Judge Fadi Akiki, the government’s commissioner to the military court, reported that so far, more than 18 port officials and the customs administration have been interrogated by the authorities and by individuals who have been assigned tasks related to the maintenance of the warehouse in which the high explosive materials that caused the disaster were deposited.
He said, as reported by RT, that the investigation amounted to 16 people being arrested, as well as others who are still under questioning.
He did not give the names of the detainees and said that investigations are underway.
On Tuesday, August 4, a violent explosion rocked the port of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, as it echoed across the city, as the façades of the buildings were destroyed and their terraces collapsed.
The High Defense Council in Lebanon declared Beirut a disaster city, and submitted a recommendation to the government to declare a state of emergency after the explosion, in which tens of people were killed and thousands wounded.
According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, more than 130 people were killed, an estimated 3,500-4,000 wounded, and more than 300,000 displaced due to the explosion at the Port of Beirut.
