Death Count In Lebanon Fuel Tank Explosion Now 28, Hospitals Overwhelmed

Lebanon President Michel Aoun's office said he has ordered a probe and chaired an emergency meeting of the defence council

A fuel tank blast in Lebanon today killed 28 people and left nearly 80 others injured, authorities and medics said, scalding a crowd that was clamouring for gasoline in the crisis-hit country. The night-time tragedy in the country's remote north overwhelmed medical facilities and heaped new misery on a nation already beset by an economic crisis and severe fuel shortages that have crippled hospitals and caused long power cuts. It revived bitter memories of an enormous explosion at Beirut port in August last year that killed more than 200 people and destroyed swathes of the capital. An adviser to the health ministry said the death count from the blast in Al-Tleil village, in the Akkar region, had climbed to 28. The Lebanese Red Cross said 79 others were injured.