German specialist emergency teams assist the local authorities in Beirut after port blast

Frankfurt: Germany sent aid and rescue teams on Wednesday to assist the local authorities in Beirut after a devastating blast tore through the city's port, killing at least 135.

The German THW, the technical emergency organisation, and ISAR Germany, the International Search and Rescue teams boarded a flight from Frankfurt on Wednesday evening destined for Beirut. On board are search and rescue dogs, medical assessment teams as well as 15 tonnes of equipment and tools, Timo Eilhard, Chief of Operations of the THW told Reuters.

Lebanese rescue teams continued to pull out bodies and hunt for missing persons in the wreckage of buildings on Wednesday, as investigations blamed negligence for the massive warehouse explosion that sent a destructive blast wave across Beirut.

More than 5,000 people were injured in Tuesday's explosion at Beirut port, Health Minister Hamad Hassan said, and up to 250,000 were left without homes fit to live in after shockwaves smashed building facades, sucked furniture out into streets and shattered windows miles inland. The death toll was expected to rise from the blast, which officials blamed on a huge stockpile of highly explosive material stored for years in unsafe conditions at the port.

The explosion was the most powerful ever to rip through Beirut, a city still scarred by civil war that ended three decades ago and reeling from an economic meltdown and a surge in the coronavirus infections. The blast also rattled buildings on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, about 100 miles (160 km) away.