Beirut blast: Lebanon seeks ship owner & captain's arrest, asks interpol to detain them

Two months after the horrific Beirut blast, Lebanon has sought the arrest of the owners and the captain of the ship that was docked in Beirut in 2013 after suffering a technical snag while it was sailing from Georgia enroute Mozambique, and the contents of which were stored at the port in an unsafe condition.

The judge leading the investigation into the disaster issued absentee arrest warrants on Thursday for the owner of the ship Rhosus and its captain, and has asked the international police organisation 'Interpol' to detain two men without publicly identifying them, according to reports.

After the ship was docked in Beirut, its contents which had 2700 tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate were offloaded in 2014 and kept in unsafe condition at a warehouse in the port, which led to a devastating explosion six years later on August 4, 2020.

It is said that the ship which was docked on the docks in 2013 sank there in 2018 due to poor and worn-out condition of the ship.

International media reports also state that the ship's owner was questioned in September in Cyprus and so far 20 people have been arrested over the catastrophic event that has shaken Beirut.

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Over 180 killed, 6,000 injured, 3,00,000 homeless

The devastating explosion took place in the capital city of Lebanon destroying dozens of buildings. In the aftermath of the explosion, the UN had announced that it would be releasing an aid package worth $9 million for Lebanon.

According to an official estimate, the blast that killed over 180 people and injured 6,000 had also left 3,00,000 people homeless while thousands had to live in damaged buildings and some had to be shifted to shared shelters, with limited access to water and sanitation. Also, the blast occurred when Lebanon was already grappling with multiple crises including the wrath of the pandemic as COVID-19 cases were surging in the capital city in the month of August compelling the government to impose lockdown to control the surge, besides the country's currency collapsing, while the country was reeling in months of demonstrations against the political systems.

(Image: AP)

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