Beirut blast death toll rises to 190

Beirut

The death toll from this month’s Beirut port blast has risen to 190, with more than 6,500 injured and three people missing, Lebanon’s caretaker government said in a report yesterday. Lebanese authorities are probing what caused highly explosive material stored unsafely for years to detonate in a mushroom cloud, wrecking swathes of the city and fuelling anger at a political class already blamed for the country’s economic meltdown.

The army said on Saturday that seven people were still missing—three Lebanese, three Syrians, and one Egyptian. It was not immediately clear if some had since been found. The August 4 explosion left 300,000 people homeless and caused $15 billion in direct damage, said the report issued yesterday by the presidency of the council of ministers.