this is ground zero and the people in
blue that you can see
are members of the russian search and
rescue team
now they have just arrived within the
last half hour or so
we came in with them and they are
going to make a very as thorough as
search as they possibly can
underneath this pile of uh destroyed
grain that they are standing on
one of the columns of the silo that
contained
the country's grain supplies because of
this destruction caused by the explosion
that means that the country has less
than a month's
supply of grain but apart from
the food insecurity problems that are
inevitably going to be
rolled out as a result of this disaster
there are also
possibly people underneath that we have
spoken to
a member of the lebanese civil defense
who's been working here
since uh the explosion happened he said
if anyone
was around on top of the ground
they didn't survive everything was
obliterated
they haven't even been able to recover
bodies from here
just parts of limbs but underneath
he said the maps show there is an
underground
room underneath there and that gives
them a
sliver of hope that maybe people
somehow survived under there and that's
why
they're going to be searching this area
in particular
they've got a drone which you can
possibly hear above us
just to help them identify weak spots
where they might be
able to dip down below they're taking in
specialist equipment to try and detect
any sound or any movement
now the lebanese civil defense have
already
said that they've pinpointed areas
around this
where they don't think people have
survived where there's a terrible smell
coming from the area it's just over
there but here
there is still a little bit of hope just
because of this
underground compartment that they are
now trying to reach you can see there is
tons and tons of debris on top of it
but it hasn't collapsed it stayed on top
of the ground it hasn't gone
penetrated as far as we can see below
the ground
and that's why that's why they're
spending
so much time and effort this is one of
the first
international teams to arrive here in
lebanon
they arrived this afternoon the russians
have
already set up a field hospital in the
old stadium
in beirut very impressive it is too as
well with tents and tents full
of medical equipment and they brought a
specialist team
very experienced and skilled in search
and rescue president of france emmanuel
macron was here at this site earlier
and he has also
devastated areas in the city and
promised
at least france's as help and also some
sort of
uh that he'll ensure any
donated funds from france will go to the
right
people he because there are many people
here who think that all of this
is whether it was caused by accident
or some sort of deliberate attack as
many people are still believing that
that could possibly be a case largely
because they distrust
almost everything that their government
tells them
the government has had accusations of
corruption levied against them for
for many years and the cause of this
explosion or the seat of this explosion
which was this huge store of ammonium
nitrate
kept here at this warehouse and which
exploded
and set off this terrible destruction
laid here and was stored here for six
years
and the people of lebanon want to know
how that was so
why was that allowed to happen who knew
about it
and what happened that led up to this
catastrophic
series of events right now you can see
there's
i think there's about 25 of
um of them as part of this search and
rescue team
uh i saw at least two female members
and the lebanese civil defense uh people
have been telling us that
we know that amongst the heroes and
there are a number of heroes
who were involved in this terrible
tragedy were
hit the ten fire fighters who turned up
here to respond to the first
fire the first explosion here they were
actually
inside this area when the second
explosion
happened all of them were killed there's
no
question all of them were killed and
they still haven't been able
to retrieve their body amongst them was
one
young 25 year old a woman the only woman
in the group she's had her burial
today another distraught family we know
that
many dozens are still waiting they still
are trying to track and find 80 missing
people
among them a number of firefighters and
people who came
to the scene to try to give help to this
terrible tragedy so
there are a lot of families a lot of
people
not just those who have lost relatives
but also those who've been left
maimed and are now critically ill in
hospital who want
answers to why this happened if the line
holds up i'd like to just turn you
around and maybe take you over here and
show you
a bit of the level of destruction or
that
is the the the city of beirut if you
like and all
those buildings that you can see in
front of you
are pretty much all damaged uh they've
all suffered in some way many of them
terribly um insecure and may have to be
leveled or certainly restored in in some
way
huge impact on the lebanese economy and
one which the lebanese
economy minister was saying earlier
today they simply
can't recover from this unless there is
substantial
international help and of course that is
there that is going to raise serious
questions about what happens
to that money because of the criticisms
of corruption
in this country but why don't you just
take a look at the scene and i'll leave
you
with these pictures showing the russian
search and rescue team looking
desperately still
some going to be some miracle if they
find
anyone alive at this late stage it's
been
a good two days now but they aren't
giving up hope
because of the information that they've
received that there is
a underground compartment an
underground chamber which they hope
against hope
that somehow people were in and have
somehow
survived this tragedy