made the difference between life and death. there have been remarkable stories of survival — we'll hear from a doctor who says her hospital was obliterated — but she continued to work through the devastation. we had patients who had arrests in the parking lot of the er, and emergency doctors were rushing to them, trying to intubate and we were doing cycles of arrests on the patient's in the parking lot. as the clear—up begins, promises of help flood in from around the world, including the us and the uk, while aid agencies rush to offer assistance. wecome to the programme. only one place to start, and that's in beirut in lebanon. the health authorities and red cross are struggling to deal with the aftermath of the extraordinary and devastating explosion. you've seen these pictures by now — this is the moment the explosion hit the city. and this shows the scale of the destruction. the port has been flattened — and you can see a major grain silo that's been destroyed. these are houses nearby. beirut‘s governor says up to 300,000 people are now homeless. rescue workers are continuing to try to find survivors. the european union is rushing rescuers, search dogs and equipment to help. the red cross is setting up new morgues. the explosion killed at least 135 people and injured more than 5,000 others. let's speak to beirut correspondent carine torbey. tell us what is happening there now. well, at the moment it is night time, after a very long day of damage assessment, of people trying to figure out what really happened to figure out what really happened to them, to their city, to the nation, probably tonight at this point everything is coming to some very deserved rest. of course behind me is the port. you cannot see it at the moment, it is not visible because there is no electricity in the city. this is not entirely linked to the explosion but it adds a lot to the sense of darkness that beirut is living in at the moment. and this is very much palpable and very much obvious in every single pa rt very much obvious in every single part of the city, every single street from every single neighbourhood. today was a day of not only assessing the number of injured, wounded, dead, but also the very large number of people who have become homeless, or at least his property have become totally in and hope to —— totally uninhabitable because of the damage and destruction they endured during the blast. what a day nation is facing is in blast. what a day nation is facing isina blast. what a day nation is facing is in a split second because of the explosion yesterday, there are tens of thousands of people who cannot return to their homes. we have seen a lot of community support, a lot of people opening their houses to strangers, to relatives, to friends, but this is not a sustainable solution, and the government should really work to find some medium—term shelters to those people, and a sustainable solution, because one thing is for sure, there will be a very large number of people who will not be able to return to their houses and homes any time soon. thank you. so many people's lives have been ripped apart by this. i want to bring you just one of those. let's listen to shadia — she's waiting at a hospital in beirut where her husband is recovering from brain surgery after he was badly injured. after the explosion, she checked on her children then tried to find her husband. i crossed, i went up to the top of the square and i saw my husband lying down unconscious, his head twisted to the site in a pool of blood, and the window frame and the wall we re blood, and the window frame and the wall were on his head, and on his legs. by the time the two ladies who we re legs. by the time the two ladies who were in the house were also safe, they were helping me, we wrapped his head and i was just screaming. they were helping me, we wrapped his head and i wasjust screaming. i they were helping me, we wrapped his head and i was just screaming. i was going to call the balance but i knew there was no point, i could hear screaming from the streets, i knew they would never make it. let's go through what we know so far. this is the site of the explosion — the photo on the left was taken injanuary — and you can see the damage in the right hand photo taken today. the lebanese government has announced a two—week state of emergency in beirut and a number of officials who worked at the port are being placed under house arrest. the cabinet has asked security forces to ensure no—one tampers with the scene. president michel aoun said the blast was caused by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate being stored unsafely in a warehouse. the chemical can be used as a fertiliser in agriculture and as an explosive. here's what he said after visiting the site. translation: there are no words to describe the catastrophe that hit beirut yesterday, which transformed it into a disaster stricken city. we are determined to investigate and reveal what happened as soon as possible, to hand out punishment to those responsible. here's our science editor david shukman with more detail on exactly what happened. the explosion in beirut happened in the worst possible place, right in the worst possible place, right in the port with a lot of holdings 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 may be a mile or more, and thena the air may be a mile or more, and then a cloud of toxic gases and dust, carried by the wind right over the city. there's growing anger over why such a large quantity of ammonium nitrate was stored in a built—up area for so long. there are reports that, between 2014 and 2017, customs officials sent six letters to the judiciary, warning of the dangers of leaving such a volatile chemical in place. and newsnight‘s mark urban says... reports are now beginning to emerge about how it got there. here's what we've been able to piece together so far from online open sources. according to fleetmon, a database of ships and ports, a russian—owned general cargo vessel called ‘rhosus' set sail from georgia to mozambique in september 2013, carrying almost 3,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate. the moldovan—flagged vessel called at beirut port after facing technical difficulties. it was inspected by port state control officers, who found ‘deficiencies' and banned it from sailing, resulting in ‘rhosus' being stranded in beirut. the majority of the ship's ukrainian crew were repatriated on the grounds they were in ‘imminent danger‘ due to the explosive nature of the cargo on board. a warehouse, dubbed ‘hanger 12', which according to the videos of the blast, was the epicentre of the explosion. a letter shared on social media indicates customs officials had warned judges of the risks associated with storing the explosives in ‘hanger 12‘ on several occassions between 2014 and 2017. major chris hunter is a former british army counter—terrorist bomb disposal specialist — here‘s what he said about ammonium nitrate. it's it‘s not designed to be left in ports for several years on end, and effectively discarded, and of course left with the other environmental conditions to degrade it, to dry it out, that sort of thing, you know, it should never have been stored there in those conditions, and certainly not colocated with fireworks. there is of course a much wider context to this. let‘s go to the scene. lebanon has just lost its port through which most of its imports pass through and in the middle of the worst economic crisis in generations. so let‘s explore that futher. the blast comes as lebanon has been going through an unprecedented economic and political crisis. we‘ll talk about that in a moment — but in the immediate aftermath, it‘s placed immense pressure on a health care system already struggling with the coronavirus pandemic. this was the scene at one of beirut‘s hospitals in the wake of the explosion — you can see here people trying to get access to the hospital but being turned away by staff, and the wounded being treated outside. here‘s dr marie eid, a paediatrician at st george university hospital. the hospital was full of patients, and it became completely non—functioning, so we had to evacuate the patients to the ground floor, or actually to the er floor, and outside of the er, we didn‘t have any electricity, we had patients who had arrests in the parking lot of the er, and emergency doctors were rushing to them, trying to intubate, and we were doing cycles of arrests on the patients in the parking lot. it was truly a very, very traumatic experience. with many hospitals damaged and staff themselves hurt, the system has been swamped. three of the city‘s hospitals are too damaged to be functional, another two are only partially working, and now doctors are running low on supplies. here‘s one top emergency doctor. translation: the blast decimated our stocks. we used up in two days what we normally use in a month or two. all of beirut get its material from the port and our hospital gets all its needs from the port of beirut. and it‘s still not clear what the long—term health effects of the explosion could be. professorjimmie oxley is a leading explosives expert. you have a lot of dust that itself can be harmful, fine dust in the air. if these people are still wearing their masks for covid, they may need them for the dust. lebanon is also already facing an unprecedented economic crisis. it defaulted on a foreign debt payment for the first time in march, and the value of its currency has been plummeting. inflation on basic food goods has soared 109% between september and may. here‘s the director for the carnegie middle east centre. incomes are collapsing, pensions are collapsing, people can‘t go to school, they can‘t afford health care. and then on top of that you have the health care crisis which came with covid—19. the security centre is suffering because they are also part and parcel. it wasjust centre is suffering because they are also part and parcel. it was just an exponential collapse, almost 50% of the population have fallen below the poverty line. we were expecting more. people were starting to go hungry. what has held the country together so far was really the amazing energy and social solidarity that the lebanese exhibited throughout this period, in trying to help those less fortunate. and now, with this, the joke was until recently all we need is an earthquake, well, this was almost an earthquake. much of lebanon‘s food and other imports come through beirut‘s port — which has now been virtually destroyed. this is what remains of the country‘s main grain silo, leaving the country with less than a month‘s reserve. but according to the economy minister, there‘s still enough flour to avoid a crisis. 300,000 people have been left homeless by the blast, and the bill for repairing the damage is likely to be between three and five billion dollars. and anger is growing at the lebanese government. here‘s a tweet from the journalist paula naoufal... the author kim ghattas also tweeted. .. here‘s bbc monitoring‘s hesham shawish. so, just try and put in context for us so, just try and put in context for us the real anger towards the political class. that's right, throughout the day there has been an outpouring of anger on social media, and also on domestic media. there has been calls for the prime minister and the government to resign, many of them expressing shock and incredulity at initial claims by officials that the explosion might have been caused by fireworks. no one believed that explanation. huge questions are being asked of how the government, the customs forces and general security could allow such a huge amount ofa security could allow such a huge amount of a dangerous substance like ammonium nitrate to stay in the port for such a long time. yes, no doubt there will be continuing questions about how authorities did leave that therefore such a long time. anger at politicians of course, and also anger at politicians because of the state of the economy. remind us just exactly how bad things are. that's true. lebanon is currently the third most indebted nation in the world. it has had a long list of problems since last year. unemployment is soaring, as is poverty, they have been protest since last october and then on top of that you have have then on top of that you have have the prolonged covid—19lockdown, which has impacted people even worse. with yesterday‘s explosion, beirut‘s governor said there are now over 300,000 people left homeless, so over 300,000 people left homeless, so the situation is quite serious. yeah, a devastating run of events there. let‘s talk about international reaction to this crisis now. france, one of lebanon‘s key allies, has already sent planes with medical supplies and rescue workers. on thursday, the french president will visit beirut himself. and here‘s what the british foreign secretary said earlier. we are going to stand by the lebanese people in their time of need. we are going to provide immediate response and an aid package, assistance package, search and rescue, humanitarian assistance up and rescue, humanitarian assistance up to £5 million, as well as expert medical support, and what is crucial at this time is that our support is tailored to the very specific needs that i have just talked through with the lebanese prime minister. so promises of support there, what kind of support does lebanon need now?- we have seen, there has been an outpouring of support from all over the world, immediately after the explosion we saw messages from the uk prime ministerand explosion we saw messages from the uk prime minister and foreign minister, and most notable from france and qatar, who have set planeloads of medical equipment, mobile clinics able to treat up to 500 people, and this comes ahead of president macron's visit tomorrow. but not just president macron's visit tomorrow. but notjust the big nations, the friendly nations, but we have also had offers of humanitarian assistance from israel, so offers like this from across the world have been quite heartening to see full stop thank you for that. stay with us, still to come. the ‘critical government errors‘ which led to many more people contracting covid—19 — a damning report from mps here in the uk. the children‘s commissioner for england says schools should be the last places to close in any future lockdowns — after pubs, restaurants and nonessential shops. anne longfield‘s comments come amid fears of a second coronavirus spike — with all pupils in england set to return to the classroom in september. of course i want life to be normal, like anyone else, but the fact of the matter is the virus is with us. we have to find ways to adapt, we have to find ways to manage it, and children have been out of school now for six months, the biggest disruption since world war ii. we know they have been really struggling, many children, in terms of home learning, many won‘t have been learning at all and the most disadvantaged of all other ones falling further behind. so this is something we have to look at very seriously, and i want to make sure they are given a protected priority in decision—making. they doesn‘t mean it is absolutely essential decision to be made, but i don‘t wa nt decision to be made, but i don‘t want the default to be that schools are the ones that close. this is outside source, live from the bbc newsroom. a two—week state of emergency has been imposed in beirut and a number of officials who worked at the port put under house arrest after a deadly explosion. let‘s get an update on coronavirus. there are now more than 18 million confirmed cases in 188 countries. more than 700,000 people have lost their lives while more than 11 million people have recovered from the virus. outbreaks in the us, brazil, and india are behind a significant proportion of the daily worldwide toll. here in the uk, a group of mps have criticised the government‘s failure to bring in border restrictions earlier. they say mistakes accelerated the scale of the pandemic here. but ministers insist they were guided by the science. here‘s our health editor hugh pym. the final ba flight from mainland china to london in late january, the final ba flight from mainland china to london in late january, as concerns about coronavirus began to grow. officials at the time assumed main risk was people arriving from asia. that proved to be wrong with a lot more cases coming from europe. now a committee of mps says in subsequent weeks to go much to implement it much tighter controls. by implement it much tighter controls. by the time you get to early march, other countries were starting to bring in much stronger border measures and the uk was very much out on a limb. that alone should have rung alarm bells for ministers, they should have been saying, why is oui’ they should have been saying, why is our approach so different, why are we so our approach so different, why are we so isolated in our approach not having audit and quarantine measures when so many other countries right now are? with britain is evacuated from wuhan and quarantined in late january, the first border measures we re january, the first border measures were introduced. in february, rivals from some countries and northern italy were told to self—isolate if they showed symptoms. in march, all italy arrivals were told to self—isolate, whether or not they showed symptoms will stop crucially this advice was not extended to spain and france. a day later, spanish football fans gathered in liverpool for a champions league fixture. on march 13, all country specific guidance was lifted and people were only told to self—isolate if they had symptoms. at the time, ministers were having to assess whether imposing a blanket quarantine restrictions on everyone arriving from abroad at heathrow and other major airports would do damage to the economy, and whether it would significantly slow transmission of the virus. officials argued in march if the virus was spreading in the uk anyway, there was no point restricting people arriving without symptoms. quarantining restricting people arriving without symptoms. quara ntining wasn‘t introduced until the 8th ofjune. throughout this process we have one of the scientific advice, which has been very clear, that when you have lower infection rates in the country, that is the point you bring in quarantine measures. that is what we did on the 8th ofjune. but some experts agree that more should have been done at an earlier stage.|j certainly think there should have been more monitoring of people coming to the uk from areas that we re coming to the uk from areas that were significantly affected by covid. i think what is apparent is that even people who were returning from italy who had been asked to self quarantine for 14 days, there was no actual monitoring of that situation to ensure that people were doing it. france has begun compulsory airport testing for those arriving from high—risk countries. the uk authorities are less keen, as it may miss some people in the early stages of infection. hugh pym, bbc news. a mass of exploding ammonium nitrate produces a blast that moves at many times the speed of sound. at least four large hospitals in beirut were so severely damaged that they were unable to admit patients. one of the hardest hit was the st george univerity hospital where at least four nurses died and five doctors were wounded. at that precise moment of the blast, there was one woman who had just gone into labour. here is the footage, filmed by her husband, and a warning, it does contain distressing images. explosion. we‘ve been speaking to the family who — despite the trauma — are safe and recovering with their new baby boy george. his father edmond described the moment the blast hit to my colleague christian fraser. we were moving to our labour room. as soon as we walked in they were ripple out —— preparing her bed with the nurses and doctors. it was like 20 seconds, they were getting everything prepared and things around, and we just heard the sound, and everything was shattering around, the glass, the instruments, everything. nothing was there. nothing. just so i'm clear, at that moment, the baby had not arrived, am i right? your wife was still in labour? no, she was already prepared, like she was just getting labour done. and we see from your pictures the wall suddenly coming through. what went through your mind? it was the glass, everything went through my mind. i thought everybody was dead. i thought we we re everybody was dead. i thought we were going to die. ijust had an adrenaline rush. and then the dust clears, and what was left, what was there and what happened next? the nurses and doctors were on the ground. i was looking around to check where is my wife, because all the ceiling was down, i was afraid that she might be hit, or the baby was hit. she was all covered with glass. i tried getting my wife out first. i moved the bed outside, and then i started helping the nurses and doctors to get them up. and how long after this did baby george arrive? like, an hour and 30 minutes. goodness. one hour. it is such a traumatic experience, a happy experience, but a traumatic experience, but a traumatic experience giving birth, your wife must have been doing this while in shock? she wasn'tjust in shock, there was no medicine. it was like old labour. a remarkable story of survival and perseverance in extraordinary and devastating circumstances there in beirut. remember, we will bring you the very latest of what is happening and keep you right up to date here on outside source. for now, though, you are watching bbc news, thank you for your company, i will be back in a couple of minutes, i am lewis vaughan jones. hello. so far this week, there‘s been some big contrast across the uk. very wet for parts of the north and the west — yesterday in scotland, today, across northern ireland and northwest england. this was cumbria earlier on this afternoon. meanwhile in the south and the east, it‘s been dry, there‘s been a good deal of sunshine and for many, away from the south coast this afternoon, it‘s been very warm. through thursday, most will be dry and warm. before we get there, we still have this frontal system still hanging around but slowly pushing its way eastwards overnight, so any early rain through this evening and the first part of the night will tend to fade away, so most places become dry. there will be quite a lot of cloud around, but it will thin and break to allow some clear spells. could see a bit of mist and fog in places. it‘s another mild, muggy night through much of england and wales, a little bit fresher than it was last night across scotland. so, into thursday, here‘s the bigger picture. still got our front with us. it‘s running into an area of high pressure, so as it does, most of the rain fizzles out. allow for some light rain and drizzle at first across southern counties of england. it won‘t really amount to much. and for much of the day tomorrow, it is looking largely dry across the uk. quite a bit of cloud through the morning, thinning and breaking as the day wears on. the winds won‘t be as strong as they have been recently. away from the western isles, still quite breezy here, but certainly feeling warmer across scotland, northern ireland and the far north of england compared to recent days — low 20 celsius here. up to 26 or 27 across the southeastern quarter of the uk. those temperatures keep on rising as we head through friday. not for all. notice frontal systems just fringing to the west of northern ireland, northern and western scotland, so cooler here, some showers. but elsewhere, we are pulling up this warm air, and it‘s going to stay with us as we head into the weekend. now, on friday, we‘ll have more sunshine than we did on thursday. away from northern ireland, perhaps north wales, western scotland, more cloud and some showery outbreaks of rain here. but for many on friday, it‘ll be dry, very warm — if not hot. once again, we could see temperatures across central, southern and eastern england in the high 20s, low 30s celsius, maybe up to around 35 celsius around london. as we head into the weekend, we do hold onto that warmth, the temperatures ease slightly. but notice it‘s high pressure which is the dominant feature across much of the uk through the weekend, so we‘re looking at some dry weather, maybe a few showers across eastern counties as we had through sunday. counties as we head through sunday. still very warm, but the temperatures easing slightly. this is bbc world news, the headlines. at least 135 people have been killed and five thousand injured by a huge explosion in the lebanese capital beirut. many people are still missing, believed trapped under rubble. the blast caused extensive damage across the city. rescue workers are continuing to try to find survivors in the port and other districts hit hardest. the lebanese prime minister has blamed a confiscated haul of thousands of tonnes of ammonium nitrate on the blast. he has promised those responsible will be held accountable. the lebanese cabinet has agreed to place all beirut port officials — who have overseen storage and security since 2014 under house arrest. in france, almost 2,000 firefighters have been trying to extinguish wildfires to the west of marseille, which broke out on tuesday. some 2,700 people have had to be evacuated from campsites and residential areas.