A matter of seconds. Thousands of tonnes of the fertiliser Ammonium Nitrate were being stored unsafely in a warehouse. A number of port officials are now under house arrest. Well be live in beirut. Also, back under lockdown. Aberdeens bars and restaurants have been ordered to close and residents told to stay at home after a spike in coronavirus cases. The inquest into the death of tv presenter Caroline Flack her mother says she was let down by the authorities and was faced with a show trial. Allegations of mistreatment. The british gymnasts who trained at one of the countrys top clubs speak out about their experiences. And englands cricketers make a promising start against pakistan, before rain interrupts the opening days play. And coming up in sport on bbc news. European football is back as Manchester United look to complete the formalities of their Europa League round of 16 tie. Good evening. Rescue workers are searching for dozens of people still missing after the massive explosion in beirut yesterday. At least 135 people were killed and more than 5000 were injured. Large parts of the city were devastated by the force of the blast. More than a quarter of a Million People were made homeless in just seconds. A two week state of emergency has been declared. The blast was felt as far away as the island of cyprus, 150 miles away in the eastern mediterranean, with people there saying they thought it was an earthquake. The whole city was shaken by the explosion in a warehouse at the port it has been destoryed. Most of lebanons food was imported through there. The countrys president blamed the blast on almost 3000 tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate a fertiliser which had been stored there unsafely for the past six years. Some port officials have been placed under house arrest whilst an investigation is carried out. Heres our middle east correspondent, quentin sommerville. Ina in a country long battered by shock, a fresh, Natural Disaster has seized lebanon. The fires burned long here at the port. The cause, a powder keg of u nsta ble at the port. The cause, a powder keg of unstable chemicals, left to rot in the very heart of beirut. The shock could be felt in cyprus, syria and israel. The 2500 tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate fertiliser was the equivalent of a one kilotonne blast. This was lebanons 9 11, they say. A catastrophe that shook the entire country. The small fire at the port had drawn people to the windows to watch. When the chemicals exploded, they received the brunt. More than 4000 have been hurt and lebanon is traumatised. It is a day they will never forget, especially for this bride. In this small town, the buildings still stand, but the people are shuttered. Jessy dawood died along with colleagues. She was 31 years old, and leaves behind her two year old, and leaves behind her two year old, her husband. The work is to save lives of people, take care of people. This is what she did. She was a hero. She died on her duty. She was saving people, she died. Jessy dawoods hospital, there was hurt and anger at a man made disaster, a physical manifestation of the countrys long dysfunction. This is a catastrophe, because, you know, we are one of the best functioning institutions in the city. We are helping with the covid effort, treating patients. Already, the system is about to collapse. Resilience is a word much overused in lebanon. In this apartment, may melki sought peace among the wreckage. She suffered power cuts, the loss of her savings and rising food prices. And now this disaster. Everybody says there is no hope, you know . But i dont want to believe it. I want to keep hoping that each time this catastrophes happens, we stand up and start again. But everybody says, many, many years before, when i was in the united states, they asked me this question. Is there hope for lebanon . I mean, there is no hope. The same politicians who created the earlier crises have to resolve this one. There is little hope they can do it alone, and there is a limit to how much more lebanon can endure. Alone, and there is a limit to how much more lebanon can endurem alone, and there is a limit to how much more lebanon can endure. It was more that i was a homage to all those that were less fortu nate a homage to all those that were less fortunate than us and were caught in this big catastrophe. Quentin sommerville, bbc news. Ammonium nitrate is a chemical that is made all over the world and is relatively cheap to buy. But storing it can be a problem, and it has been associated with serious industrial accidents in the past. 0ur science editor David Shukman explains what it is and how it can cause so much damage. It began as a very large blaze, a towering grey column, and flashes from what looked like fireworks. But worse was to follow. A massive explosion, and as it erupted, an important clue emerged in the colour of the smoke, a reddish brown, which meant that Ammonium Nitrate was involved in vast quantities. So what is this substance, Ammonium Nitrate . Well, it is a chemical mainly used as a fertiliser. Farmers in the uk and all over the world apply it to their fields. And on its own, there is no danger. But this powder can also be used as an ingredient for explosives. It was favoured by the ira. This was the london docklands bombing in 1996. And Scotland Yard persuaded farmers to guard their supplies carefully. We did a great deal of work, informing farmers, informing those that had access to it and stored it, how dangerous it was, how it should be stored, so that if there was an explosion, it wouldnt propagate and grow into a huge explosion like we saw yesterday. Why is Ammonium Nitrate so potentially dangerous . Well, in certain conditions, it can become unstable. This vast explosion in china, five years ago, involved a quarter of the quantity that erupted yesterday. The explosion in beirut happened in the worst possible place, right in the port, with a lot of buildings around, and the impact would have been felt in several different ways. First, a shock wave, leading to a sudden increase in pressure which would have killed people nearby. Then a wave of debris, chunks of concrete and glass, hurled through the air, maybe a mile or more. And then a cloud of toxic gases and dust, carried by the wind right over the city. So why was the Ammonium Nitrate there in the first place . In the aftermath, there are no clear answers. All of the ports officials are now under house arrest while an investigation starts. The chemical had been brought there six years ago, possibly by a russian ship, but was then just left. Maybe it was destined for lebanons farmers but never released to them. Whatever happened, a deliberate detonation cant be ruled out, but nor can neglect and carelessness. Theres probably enough problems within the infrastructure of lebanon to explain poor storage practices, poor chemical accounting. You probably have all the ingredients in there already, without needing to attribute it to malice. Seen from space, this was the port before the explosion. Now it lies in ruins, whole buildings wiped out, and the shocking sight of a large ship on its side. Whatever the cause, the recovery will take years. David shukman, bbc news. Britain will deploy emergency medical staff and search and rescue teams to beirut. The blast comes at a difficult time for the country, which is not only trying to curb the spread of the coronavirus, but is also struggling with in an unprecedented economic crisis. 0ur middle east editorjeremy bowen looks at the troubles facing the country. Officials who may have ignored warnings about the dangers facing beirut are under house arrest. That is just the start of national recriminations. The force of the blast was devastating. If lebanon was rich, well governed and secure, it would find it hard to deal with this crisis. But it has none of those strengths. The mayor inspected the damage. He said reconstruction would take billions of dollars. Thats money lebanon just doesnt have. The president , michel aoun, has declared three days of mourning. Many lebanese dont trust their leaders and are sick of an elite, including former warlords like the president himself, who have been at the top for decades. Lebanons youth want change. Before and sometimes during the pandemic, there were big protests. Many called them a revolution against corruption and incompetence. What has gone wrong is decades and decades of abusive use of power by a privileged and corrupt elite, which has been milking the country corru ptly, which has been failing to provide the basic services such as electricity and proper internet and proper telephone, affordable telephones, proper operation of the customs system, proper whatever, agricultural policy. They have all been lacking. A rare gesture came from israel. Tel aviv city hall was lit with a lebanese flag. The two cities are separated by 160 miles of mediterranean coastline, and lifetimes of pain and history in the worlds most unstable region. Lebanon is surrounded by enemies, and the kind of friends that no country wants. To the south, there is israel. This time, they have offered aid but before that, the talk was of border tension and perhaps even another war. Then theres syria, where the assad regime has always regarded lebanon as its backyard. The lebanese have absorbed about 1. 5 million syrian refugees. That is the same as britain taking about 15 million. And iran is close to the lebanese shia militia, hezbollah, which is the most powerful political and military organisation in the country. The medical emergency is extreme. First covid 19, and now three hospitals in beirut have been put out of action by the explosions. I saw all of the war in lebanon. This blow is as important as the 11th of september blow in the united states. For us, i think this is a very big blow. We need really the international support. French rescue teams left paris for beirut, britain announced £5 million of emergency aid, but lebanon has deep political problems that money without reform will not be able to fix. In beiruts wreckage are the ruins of the granary that contained vital supplies of imported wheat. Another disaster, at the Chernobyl Nuclear power plant, finished off the soviet union. Lebanons old order should fear the fallout from beirut docks. Jeremy bowen, bbc news. Lets go live to beirut tonight, and speak to our correspondent carine torbey. So, dozens of people still missing. Thousands and thousands homeless. Describe the situation tonight . Well, this has been a very long and sad day in beirut, after the immediate shock of the explosion yesterday, people were able today to assess the real scale of the devastation. And im notjust talking about the ruins, the shards of glass everywhere, we are also talking about entire neighbourhoods becoming completely uninhabitable, which means thousands of people, tens of thousands of people, becoming homeless from one day to the other. But ive seen a lot of community support, empathy, people opening their houses to their friends, their relatives or even com plete friends, their relatives or even complete strangers. But this is not sustainable. And this issue should be one of the Top Priorities in any rescue plan. Because from what we have seen today, it is very unlikely that beirut will heal any time soon. Thank you. The rest of the news now. Aberdeen is back under lockdown restrictions tonight. Pu bs, cafes a nd restau ra nts were ordered to close this afternoon after a spike in coronavirus cases. 54 cases have been recorded in the cluster. Residents have been told they cant visit each others homes or travel more than five miles from where they live unless for work or education. 0ur scotland correspondent lorna gordon reports. Aberdeen, back into a local lockdown, the streets this evening close to deserted. More than 200,000 People Living here, facing restrictions on what they can do and where they can go. This, a last pint poured in a granite city pub before, like other venues, at 5pm, it had to close. Instead of closing down aberdeen, maybe close down two or three bars, whatever, thats fair enough