Up to 300,000 left homeless by Beirut blast: Governor

A huge blast in Beirut has left 300,000 people homeless and caused damage across half of the city estimated to cost more than US$3 billion (S$4.1 billion), its governor told AFP on Wednesday (Aug 5).

"I think there are between 250,000 and 300,000 people who are now without homes," said Mr Marwan Aboud, adding that the estimated cost of the damage from Tuesday's explosion was between US$3 billion and US$5 billion dollars.

Engineers and technical teams have yet to conduct an official assessment, he said, adding that damage from the blast in the port area seems to have extended to over half of the city.