Massive explosion rocks Beirut, damaging buildings and shattering windows

Updated: 12:20 p.m.

A huge explosion rocked Beirut Tuesday, shattering windows and damaging buildings across a wide swath of the city. The blast sent a huge mushroom cloud into the sky, seemingly emanating from a spot where a fire had been burning.

The dramatic explosion was caught on numerous eyewitness videos, as people had been filming the fire that was burning at an industrial port in Lebanon's capital.

The extent of the casualties caused by the blast wasn't immediately clear. The Lebanese Red Cross says it is receiving "thousands of calls" on its emergency line, and implored people to use the line "only for critical and severe cases."

Early reports suggest the explosion came from a large fireworks warehouse. Some of the video recordings show what looked to be flashes of smaller explosions before the large blast.

"Residents in the city's upmarket Christian majority neighborhood, Gemmayzeh told NPR almost every building looked damaged by the explosion," NPR's Ruth Sherlock reports.

Photos from the aftermath show emergency crews tending to people with a range of injuries, including many who were cut by flying glass.

Lebanon's state news agency NNA say the explosion followed a fire at the Beirut Port. It adds that the explosions "reverberated in the capital and the suburbs, and left behind great damages to the surrounding buildings and a considerable number of wounded."

Evacuations are underway in the area, the agency added.

This is a developing story.

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