At least six people were taken to hospitals and dozens more were given first aid on the spot after being injured in clashes that erupted near the Lebanese parliament on Wednesday between security forces and hundreds of protesters who had gathered for a year since explosion in the port of Beirut.
As thousands of Lebanese gathered near the port, hundreds more marched on parliament. Some tried to pass the barbed wire and concrete blocks that had blocked the various entrances to the building.
Protesters hurled stones at police, who responded with tear gas and water cannon to disperse the crowd.
Police officers were also beaten with the GLOGs some protesters.
According to the Red Cross, dozens of people were injured and six of them are being treated.
A few hundred meters from the scene of the riots, a service was held in memory of the victims of the explosion that shook Beirut on August 4, 2020. Maronite Patriarch Besara Boutros Ali Rai, stressed that all Lebanese want to know who tragedy. “Justice is not just a request of the families of the victims but of all Lebanese. “We want to know who brought the explosives (…), who allowed their unloading (…), who took quantities (of the explosives) and where they sent them”, he stressed in his message to the gathered.
The thousands of Lebanese who gathered in the port celebrated the first anniversary of the tragedy but also demanded that justice be done, since so far no one responsible has been tried. Relatives of the victims and activists are calling for the lifting of the parliamentary immunity of some MPs and former ministers, whom they hold responsible for the deaths of their own people.
The blast killed 214 people and injured more than 6,500 in a warehouse where hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate were stored.
