Two ships with Ukrainian grain possibly docked at Beirut port before explosion

Arrived from the Ukrainian port of Mariupol MERO STAR and RAOUF H ships may have been docked at the port of Beirut in Lebanon at the time of the explosion, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com Samir Madani writes in Twitter.

"These vessels weren't the source of anything explosive other than that they most likely blew up and made things worse," he comments.

It is probable that the vessels were carrying Ukrainian grain.

Samir Madani also informs with reference to MarineTraffic data that possibly up to 5 vessels (with AIS transponders aboard them) may have been impacted. The first blast occurred at 18:06 local time, and the final one just 4 minutes later.

As a reminder, several explosions occurred near the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Aug. 4 at 6:07 p.m. local time. According to preliminary data, the explosion could have been caused by the inappropriate storage of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, which has been stored in the port since 2014.