Dominic Raab has pledged £5million of international aid to help Lebanon in the aftermath of Beirut’s devastating explosion which has killed at least 135.
The Foreign Secretary spoke to Lebanon’s prime minister Hassan Diab today to set out what support the UK could offer the country which has been plunged into a state of emergency.
Britain’s aid package will also include expert assistance and the potential for a Royal Navy survey ship to help assess the damage caused to the port.
Mr Raab said the Lebanese prime minister told him there would be a ‘full, thorough and rigorous investigation to get to the truth – I think the people of the Lebanon deserve no less – and that there will be full accountability’.
The Government has said all embassy staff based in Beirut are accounted for, but some have suffered ‘non-life-threatening injuries’.
Lebanon has begun the daunting task of trying to clean up its capital Beirut after a devastating explosion tore apart the city’s port (pictured) and caused damage across the city after several tons of explosive chemicals ignited
Dominic Raab has pledged £5million of international aid to help Lebanon in the aftermath of Beirut’s devastating explosion which has killed at least 135
Mr Raab said the details of Britons caught up in the Beirut blast were still being established.
‘We are not sure on the precise figures in relation to UK nationals there, we will obviously want to bottom out that in the days ahead,’ the Foreign Secretary said.
‘Obviously we have a consular team there which are monitoring that very carefully.’
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the UK must offer Lebanon ‘full support’ to deal with the crisis, with the Government yet to set out its response.
The British Red Cross has launched an emergency appeal for Britons to support the relief effort.
More than a dozen countries have made offers of humanitarian aid and assistance following an appeal by Prime Minister Hassan Diab in a short televised speech
Mr Diab called on friends of Lebanon to extend help to the small nation, saying: ‘We are witnessing a real catastrophe.’
France, Russia and Greece announced plans to send planeloads of medical aid to Lebanon, where Jordan and Egypt have set up field hospitals to help prevent hospitals being overcome with the number of injured turning up.
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are participating in a blood donation drive in partnership with the Red Cross to help wounded victims.
Lebanese officials have called Beirut ‘disaster city’ and 135 have been declared dead, 5,000 wounded and dozens missing.
The Lebanese government has put an unspecified number of Beirut port officials under house arrest pending an investigation into how 2,750 tonnes of explosive ammonium nitrate came to be stored at the port for years.
A helicopter flies above the port which has been destroyed by the explosion yesterday that has left thousands of people destitute
A warehouse fire sparked by a welder set light to 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that was being stored at the city’s port, causing an explosion with force roughly equal to a fifth of the atomic bomb which levelled Hiroshima
Mr Aoun said the blast stemmed from the ammonium nitrate being stored unsafely in a warehouse, amid suggestions the material was confiscated from a ship in 2013.
As many as 300,000 people may have been left homeless, Beirut’s governor Marwan Aboud said, with many buildings reduced to an uninhabitable mess of rubble and glass.
Senior Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat said the Royal Navy should be sent to help reopen the port to get food, fuel and medical supplies in.
‘Beirut has been a haven of tranquillity in a very troubled region for many hundreds of years,’ the chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said.
‘To find it now in such a rocky road is extremely worrying for all of us.’
The Queen’s message to Mr Aoun said: ‘Prince Philip and I were deeply saddened by news of the explosion at the port in Beirut yesterday.
‘Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those who have been injured or lost their lives, and all those whose homes and livelihoods have been affected.’
Destruction laid bare: Aerial photos show the gutted frames of the warehouses in Beirut’s port following the massive explosion yesterday
French President Emmanuel Macron is to fly to Beirut, while his nation has dispatched two planeloads of rescue workers and aid. Turkey is also sending rescue teams and emergency medical personnel.
There are concerns of food shortages and unrest in the city, with the blast compounding anger stemming from a severe economic crisis and the coronavirus pandemic.
Former Middle East minister Alistair Burt said he expects the tragedy to lead to ‘some degree of political shake-up’ in Lebanon.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘Whether or not something like this does bring the political processes in Lebanon together to appreciate they can’t go on as they are, that will be another thing, but at the moment I think we should focus on the disaster consequences, be as supportive as possible in relation to that.’