Thousands turn out to call for accountability for one of world’s biggest non-nuclear blasts

Police fired teargas at protesters in Beirut on Saturday after thousands turned out in the city centre to demand accountability for one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions the world has seen.

Driven by anger at the corruption and incompetence that appears to have fostered Wednesday’s tragedy, a crowd gathered in Martyrs Square, where activists have erected a mock gallows for Lebanon’s top politicians.

On Tuesday evening, a massive explosion ripped across Beirut, killing at least 150 people and injuring thousands more. The scale of the damage was immense, with buildings miles from the port lying in ruin.

The Guardian's international correspondent Michael Safi looks at the cause of the blast and the impact it has had on Lebanon, a country already on the brink of financial collapse

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

State media says several people were injured in protests as country’s ambassador to Jordan resigns over ‘state negligence’

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

Lebanese security forces fired tear gas at demonstrators in Beirut, as rage over the country’s leadership grew following a massive explosion that laid waste to large parts of the capital on Tuesday.

State media reported late on Thursday that security forces confronted dozens of anti-government protesters in central Beirut Some in the small protest were wounded, the National News Agency, NNA, reported.

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