Cypriot police interview Russian at centre of Beirut blast

Cypriot police have interviewed the Russian millionaire shipping entrepreneur linked to Tuesday’s lethal explosion, which decimated the port of Beirut.

Among the confirmed dead from the gigantic fireball is an employee of CMA CGM. The French liner group’s Beirut office was destroyed in the blast on Tuesday evening.

Concern is also growing about ammonia nitrate storage at other ports around the world.

The full scale of the accident is still being pieced together. Compared to the 2015 ammonia nitrate explosion at Tianjin port, which until Tuesday was believed to be the largest, most costly port accident in peacetime, Beirut port had three and a half times the amount of the explosive substance stocked in one warehouse three days ago compared to when the northern Chinese port suffered its own dramatic series of explosions on August 12 five years ago.