Czech search and rescue team departs to Beirut

A Czech search and rescue team left for Beirut on Wednesday to assist in the search for survivors and missing bodies, after Tuesday's massive explosion.

The team of 37 and five dogs boarded a plane at Vaclav Havel Airport in Prague bound for the blast scene.

The team is made up volunteers from the fire departments around the country, structural engineers and trainers with dogs capable of locating victims beneath collapsed buildings.

The explosion — hitting with the force of a 3.5-magnitude earthquake — was the biggest ever seen in Beirut, a city blasted by a 1975-1990 civil war, bombarded in conflicts with Israel and hit by periodic terror attacks.

Lebanon's interior minister said it appeared that a large cache of ammonium nitrate in the port had detonated.

The sudden devastation overwhelmed a country already struggling with both the coronavirus pandemic and a severe economic crisis.

Seeing off the search rescue team off from Prague's airport, Czech Interior Minister Jan Hamacek said the Czech team would be "one of the first teams on the ground."