Beirut blast: Massive explosion shakes Lebanon's capital, injuries reported

Dozens of people reportedly killed in Beirut blast; Trey Yingst reports.A massive explosion shook Beirut on Tuesday, killing at least 60 people and injuring thousands of others while flattening much of the port, damaging buildings across the capital, and sending a giant mushroom cloud into the sky.The cause of the explosion remains unclear. The explosion appeared to be centered around Beirut's port and caused wide-scale destruction and shattered windows miles away.PHOTOS: HUGE EXPLOSIONS ROCK BEIRUT WITH WIDESPREAD DAMAGE, INJURIESA civil defense official on the scene of the blast said his men had evacuated dozens to hospitals and that there were still bodies inside the port, many of them under debris.Dozens of ambulances ferried the injured from the port area, where the wounded lay on the ground, Associated Press staff at the scene said. “There are cars with dead people in the streets under rubble, and the medical infrastructure was already at full speed due to the pandemic and lack of supplies,” one source in the region said.Another source told Fox News that the port was unofficially controlled by Hezbollah, thus pointing out that other adverse players in the region could have played a role.An Israeli government official said Israel "had nothing to do" with the blast. Israeli officials usually do not comment on "foreign reports."An Associated Press photographer near the port witnessed people wounded on the ground and widespread destruction in central Beirut. Some local televisions stations reported the blast originated inside an area where firecrackers were stored."It was like a nuclear explosion," said Walid Abdo, a 43-year-old school teacher in the neighborhood of Gemayzeh near Beirut.Charbel Haj, who works at the port, said it started as small explosions like firecrackers, then the huge blast erupted, and he was thrown off his feet.