레바논, 대폭발 원인 지목 질산암모늄 '방치' 규명 착수<br /><br />A day after a massive explosion shook Lebanon's capital of Beirut,... the death toll in the city has risen to 135... with five thousand others wounded.<br />Lebanon's president said the blast was caused by a huge amount of ammonium nitrate that was stored in a warehouse.<br />The Lebanese government has launched an investigation into exactly what happened.<br />Kim Sung-min reports.<br />The 27-hundred metric tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse in Beirut's port has been pointed to as the source of the massive explosion in the city.<br />Now, all eyes are on who is responsible for the storage and why such dangerous material had been kept unsecured for such a long time.<br />The Lebanese government has launched an investigation into the blast…,saying it will not rest until it finds those responsible.<br />"What happened today won't pass without accountability, those responsible will pay the price for what happened, this is a promise to the wounded and a national commitment. Facts will be revealed about this dangerous warehouse that has been there since 2014."<br />The incident is evolving into a political scandal and many Middle Eastern media outlets have been blaming high ranking government officials.<br />Aljazeera reported on Wednesday local time that officials had been aware of the dangerous storage for more than six years.<br />It said that the ammonium nitrate was shipped to the Beirut port in 2013 by a Russian-owned ship..., but no meaningful steps were taken to handle the explosive material.<br />As of Wednesday local time, the death toll from the explosion has jumped to 135, with nearly 5-thousand wounded and dozens still missing.<br />Officials say they expect the death toll to grow as emergency workers dig through the rubble to search for survivors.<br />The country's cabinet declared a two-week state of emergency in Beirut, with its president calling for unity.<br />Against such a backdrop, the UN is stepping up to increase emergency assistance to Lebanon.<br />Other countries have offered emergency aid.<br />France's president is planning to visit Beirut, and South Korea is also discussing detailed plans to provide support.<br />Kim Sung-min, Arirang News.<br />
