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