In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic had overwhelmed many of the country's hospitals, several of which were already short of medical supplies and unable to pay staff due to the financial crisis. The economy of Lebanon was in a state of crisis before the explosion, with the government having defaulted on debt, the Lebanese pound plunging, and a poverty rate that had risen past 50%. The explosion occurred behind the grain silos in this view. In July and August 2022, part of the silos collapsed following a weeks-long fire in the remaining grain. The adjacent grain silos were badly damaged. On 10 August 2020, Prime Minister Hassan Diab and the Lebanese cabinet resigned. In its aftermath, protests erupted across Lebanon against the government for their failure to prevent the disaster, joining a larger series of protests which had been taking place across the country since 2019. The Lebanese government declared a two-week state of emergency in response to the disaster. It was detected by the United States Geological Survey as a seismic event of magnitude 3.3 and is considered one of the most powerful artificial non-nuclear explosions in history. It was felt in Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, and Israel, as well as parts of Europe, and was heard in Cyprus, more than 240 km (150 mi) away. The blast was so powerful that it physically shook the whole country of Lebanon. The explosion was preceded by a fire in the same warehouse. A cargo of 2,750 tonnes of the substance (equivalent to around 1.1 kilotons of TNT) had been stored in a warehouse without proper safety measures for the previous six years after having been confiscated by Lebanese authorities from the abandoned ship MV Rhosus. On 4 August 2020, a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the Port of Beirut in the capital city of Lebanon exploded, causing at least 218 deaths, 7,000 injuries, and US$15 billion in property damage, as well as leaving an estimated 300,000 people homeless.
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