Lebanese authorities seized twenty tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a fertilizer warehouse east of the country, without providing further details, the country’s National News Agency (NNA) said.
The NNA reported on Saturday that the new interior minister, Bassam Mawlawi gave instructions to conduct a survey of the area.
“We must do our best to move these materials to a safer place away from exposure to heat and sun” to avoid a “catastrophe”, the NNA quoted him as saying.
The company that owns the ammonium nitrate said that the fertilizer was intended for agricultural use.
“One of our employees informed the relevant authorities that we have ammonium nitrate, so they raided the warehouses on Friday,” one of the company heads told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Ammonium nitrate is the same substance that was behind Beirut’s deadly blast, as hundreds of tons of the substance were unsafely stored in the capital’s port, leading to the death of at least 214 people.
It later emerged that officials at several political, security and judicial levels were aware of the dangers of storing this substance and did nothing.
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