The cause of the explosions was not immediately clear, but Lebanon’s internal security chief, Abbas Ibrahim, said the area was housing highly explosive materials.

“We cannot pre-empt investigations,” he said.

02:05

Twin explosions in Beirut kill at least 73 people and injure thousands

Twin explosions in Beirut kill at least 73 people and injure thousands

“What happened today will not go unpunished and those responsible for this disaster will pay the price, and this is a promise to the martyrs and the wounded,” Prime Minister Hassan Diab said.

The term martyr can be used in the Arab and Muslim world to refer to victims of accidents.

“Facts about this dangerous warehouse that has been there since 2014, i.e. for six years now, will be announced,” Diab said, adding that he would not pre-empt investigations into the blasts.

“At the moment, we are focusing on handling the disaster, pulling the martyrs out, and treating the wounded,” the prime minister said.

The Lebanese presidency later cited Diab in a tweet as saying it was “unacceptable” that a shipment of approximately 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate was stored in a warehouse in Beirut’s port for six years without safety measures.

“I will not rest until I know who was responsible for what happened and give them harshest punishment,” Diab was quoted as saying.

Initial reports said the blasts were inside a fireworks depot at the port. Beirut’s governor, Marwan Aboud, said up to 300,000 people had been left homeless by the explosions, which caused more than US$3 billion worth of damage.

“It would seem like it based on the explosion. I met with some of our great generals and they just seemed to feel that it was. This was not some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event,” Trump said during a press conference.

“They seemed to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind.”

Asked about Trump’s remarks, a Pentagon spokesman said “we don’t have anything for you” and “you will have to reach out to the White House for clarification”.

Among the dead was the secretary general of the Kataeb Party, Nizar Najarian, who reportedly died of severe injuries from the blasts.

The massive explosions rocked Beirut, causing panic across the Lebanese capital. Witnesses reported seeing an orange cloud like that which appears when toxic nitrogen dioxide gas is released after an explosion involving nitrates.

00:36

Cellphone video of second Beirut blast

Cellphone video of second Beirut blast

Windows were shattered across the city and at its outskirts. Black smoke billowed over Beirut’s port. At least some of the wounded were buried under rubble.

Damage was reported in houses in central Beirut and the main highway near the port was covered with pieces of glass.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said in a statement that one of the force’s ships of the Maritime Task Force docked in the port was damaged, leaving some of its naval peacekeepers injured, some seriously.

Two Filipinos and an Australian were among foreigners killed in the blasts.

The Lebanese army was helping in transferring the wounded to nearby hospitals. Shortly after the explosions, telephone and internet services went down in the capital.

Residents in the Kartina area, a few metres from the location of the blasts, said that they heard two explosions, the second one was the bigger one.

“There is damage that extended 7km away from the site,” a police officer at the scene said.

There were tragic scenes in hospitals amid calls for blood donations. People covered with blood were seen standing at the doors of the hospitals.

Some hospitals were damaged due to the explosions and some of their medical staff were killed, Suleiman Haroun, head of the private hospitals syndicate said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi was quick to tamp down any speculation of Israeli involvement, saying the explosion “was an accident caused by a fire, I suggest caution with speculation - I do not see any reason not to believe the reports from Beirut”.

Israel has often had military clashes with militias based in Lebanon. Just last week, Israeli forces scrambled after a still-unidentified event at the countries’ border.

Israel said it offered humanitarian aid to Lebanon via foreign channels, as the two countries have no diplomatic relations.

Qatar and other Arab states said they would send field hospitals over on Wednesday while French President Emmanuel Macron said his country was also sending aid to Lebanon.

Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn’s house was damaged in the blasts, a Brazilian newspaper reported, citing his wife Carole.

Carole Nahas told O Estado de S. Paulo that her family was safe but the house, located about five kilometres from the explosion site, had incurred damage.

Carlos, who is a Brazilian, French and Lebanese national, jumped bail late last year and fled to Lebanon from Japan, where he had been arrested for on suspicion of financial misconduct at Nissan.

The Japanese government has sought Ghosn’s extradition through Interpol, but Lebanon has indicated it is unlikely to hand him over as the two countries do not have an extradition treaty.

Tuesday’s explosions hit a country already reeling from its worst economic crisis in decades which has left nearly half of the population in poverty, as well as from the coronavirus pandemic.

Lebanon’s economy has collapsed in recent months, with the local currency plummeting, businesses closing en masse and poverty soaring at the same alarming rate as unemployment.

Charity Save the Children said “the incident could not have occurred at a worse time”.

The explosions also came three days before a UN tribunal’s verdict on the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a huge 2005 truck bomb attack.

Four alleged members of the Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah are on trial in absentia at the court in the Netherlands over the huge Beirut bombing that killed Sunni billionaire Hariri and 21 other people.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse and Associated Press