An Instagram page is helping people locate their missing loved ones after a huge explosion devastated Beirut
REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Some people affected by the massive explosion that rocked Beirut on Tuesday have turned to Instagram in an attempt to locate missing loved ones in the aftermath of the blast.
One Instagram page, LocateVictimsBeirut, shares the names of people found as hospitals and photos of those who are reported missing by their families.
By Wednesday, the account reached more than 90,000 followers.
The explosion, caused by 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, killed at least 100 people and injured thousands.
With Beirut in chaos after a massive explosion at the port left at least 100 dead and thousands injured, people have turned to Instagram to find their missing loved ones.
One Instagram page has attracted more than 90,000 followers since the blast devastated the Lebanese capital on Tuesday evening.
LocateVictimsBeirut has shared the photos of nearly 100 people who are missing, as well as the names of many men and women who have been found at local hospitals.
"We are trying to locate the individuals posted on this account," the administrator wrote in an early post. "Please share this page, we need to be effective and have a single platform for individuals to look through the pictures."
The administrator told Insider that the page has seen a lot of activity, but there is no available data on how many people have been able to find their loved ones. Some of the missing people identified on the page have since been marked safe.
The source of the explosion on Tuesday was a store of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate kept at the docks for years, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said.
The exact cause remains under investigation.
Some hospitals in Beirut were so badly damaged that they could not admit any patients from the blast, which also hit a warehouse that housed much of the country's vaccine supply.
Healthcare workers were among those killed.
Many in the city started filming Tuesday night when they saw gray smoke billowing from the area by the port. Soon after the smoke began, there was a massive blast that formed an orange mushroom cloud that towered over the city and caused widespread devastation.
—Nader Itayim | نادر ایتیّم (@ncitayim) August 4, 2020
In addition to trying to reconnect loved ones, LocateVictimsBeirut also shared a link to a crowdfunding effort for Beirut disaster relief that has been launched by the nonprofit Impact Lebanon.
The fund had raised more than $3 million as of Wednesday alongside messages of support that poured in from around the world.
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