As a devastating blast tore across Beirut, Emmanuelle Khnaisser prepared to give birth to a baby boy while the hospital shook and windows were shattered.

Her husband, Edmound, captured the moments before their son was delivered safe and well on camera. In a social media post, the new father praised the efforts of the doctors and nurses, adding: ‘My son George was born under a catastrophic blast. I did not believe we [would come] out alive.’

The explosion has killed at least 157 people, left thousands homeless and caused up to $15bn (£11bn) worth of damage to the capital

• Blast timeline: what we know, and what we don’t
• ‘None of them this time’: Lebanese vow not to let leaders off hook

What happened in the months and years leading up to the explosion at the Lebanese capital’s port?

Beirut is still counting the cost in lives and property from a massive explosion at its port on Tuesday that sent a shockwave blasting across the city. Anger is growing in Lebanon at what appears to be an industrial accident that authorities foresaw and warned about for years before. The Lebanese government is currently investigating, but many in the country and internationally are calling for an independent probe.

Exactly what happened at the port in the early evening of 4 August is still unclear, but several facts have come to light in the days since the blast. The trail begins nearly seven years ago, with a rickety ship leaving the eastern European state of Georgia, carrying a deadly load.

‘Do you really think Hiroshima could have been worse than this?’ asked one man on an agonising Lebanese day

• Visual guide: how explosion caused devastation
• Tell us: have you been affected by the explosion in Beirut?

The twisted and mangled heap of steel that used to be Beirut’s port stretched to both horizons; to the left, battered skyscrapers seemed hunched in defeat and an empty highway strewn with wrecked cars led through a heat haze the other way.

A traffic barrier was covered in the bloody handprints of those who had somehow survived the cataclysmic blast and had staggered into the apocalyptic aftermath.

Footage filmed during a Beirut church's livestream shows the moment it was struck by the blast while a priest was delivering mass. The cleric can be seen fleeing as debris and stained-glass windows fall from above. At least 100 people were killed and 4,000 injured by the explosion in the city's port area

• Beirut blast: what we know so far
• Lebanon in mourning after deadly Beirut blasts
• Beirut explosion: claims 'nothing was done' for years over ammonium nitrate at Lebanon port – live updates

Beirut’s mayor, Jamal Itani, struggled to describe what he saw as he toured parts of the Lebanese capital the day after an explosion killed at least 100 people. Footage from the blast zone showed extensive damage, with residents moving through rubble and cleaning up broken glass and overturned furniture in their homes

• Visual guide: how explosion caused mass casualties and devastation across Beirut
• Beirut explosion: latest updates
  

• What we know so far
  

Lebanon PM Hassan Diab appeals for international assistance as search continues for missing in devastated city

• Full report: Lebanon in mourning
• ‘We’re cursed’: shock and despair as explosion devastates city
• Crisis upon crisis: blast rocks a Lebanon already on its knees
• Ammonium nitrate: what is the chemical blamed for blast?
• Tell us: how have you been affected by the explosion in Beirut?

12.24pm BST

The French Presidency has just confirmed that Emmanuel Macron will to travel to Beirut tomorrow (Thursday).

12.19pm BST

Pallets of aid are being loaded in Dubai to be flown to Beirut:

23 tonnes of aid will be sent via air to Beirut from the World Health Organisation warehouse in Dubai.

Items include medical trauma kits carrying syringes, bandages and gauze @TheNationalUAE pic.twitter.com/JoYpfklQDd