ArmInfo. RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a telephone conversation with Lebanon's President Michel Aoun, the press service of Armenian PM reports.
Prime Minister Pashinyan expressed his support to the friendly people of Lebanon and its President. He offered deepest condolences to the families of those slain in the devastating explosion at the port of Beirut and wished a speedy recovery to the injured.
Prime Minister Pashinyan assured of the Armenian authorities' readiness to provide emergency assistance to friendly Lebanon and its fraternal people.
Michel Aoun thanked Nikol Pashinyan for kind remarks of support and sympathy and expressed his gratitude for the readiness of the Armenian government to provide assistance tailored to the needs of Lebanon. President Aoun advised that Lebanon's authorities are making every effort to overcome the problems as soon as possible.
To note, a huge explosion occurred on Tuesday evening in the port of Beirut. As reported later in the Lebanese security forces, ammonium nitrate detonated from a contraband cargo confiscated from one of the ships several years ago. All these years, explosives have been stored in a warehouse in the port awaiting their destruction. Ammonium nitrate is used as a component of explosives and as nitrogen fertilizer. The explosion killed at least 100 people, and injured over 4,000. The blast wave destroyed and damaged dozens of houses, cars, glass were broken in many quarters of the capital. At the scene, the debris is being dismantled and the search for survivors and dead. A four-day mourning period has been declared in the country, a 2-week state of emergency has been introduced.
Governor of Beirut, estimated the damage from the explosion in the port of the city at $ 3-5 billion. He also announced the deaths of 10 firefighters sent to the scene of the incident, and noted that residents of the city who were left homeless could number in the hundreds. It became known that the explosion killed the General Secretary of the Lebanese nationalist party "Al- Qataib" Nazar Najarian. As the Al- Arabiya TV channel reported, as a result of the emergency, the politician was seriously injured, his condition was assessed as critical, the doctors fought for his life, but in vain.
As ArmInfo previously reported with reference to the RA Foreign Ministry, the explosion also damaged the building of the Armenian Embassy in Beirut, officially over 100 Armenians suffered. As a result of the explosion, property and material damage was inflicted on the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilician.