The 2,700 tons of fertilizer believed to have caused the explosion that devastated Beirut had been confiscated from a Russian businessman — who “abandoned” his cargo ship after an unscheduled stop, according to reports.
Officials revealed Tuesday that the blast that killed at least 100 — and left up to 300,000 homeless — appeared to have been sparked by ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse since it was confiscated in 2014.
There were repeated warnings on the dangers of storing it — including one that it could “blow up all of Beirut” — but “nothing was done,” official sources told Reuters, calling it “negligence.”
The timeline and size of the cargo suggest it was taken from the MV Rhosus, according to the Associated Press, as well as Lebanon’s LBCI, citing sources at a Supreme Defense Council meeting.
The Rhosus is owned by Igor Grechushkin, a Russian national who now lives in Cyprus, according to the Moscow Times.
It had been traveling from Georgia to Mozambique in 2013 when it experienced an apparent malfunction and made an unscheduled stop in Beirut, the reports said.
Grechushkin then declared bankruptcy — and “abandoned” the ship in Lebanon, leaving its crew stranded on the vessel for months before the ammonium nitrate could be offloaded, the Moscow Times said.
The ammonium nitrate had been stored in a warehouse in the port of Beirut since then, the outlet said.
NY POST
