At least 33 people were killed by a

fuel tanker A tank truck, gas truck, fuel truck, or tanker truck (American English) or tanker (British English) is a motor vehicle designed to carry liquids or gases on roads. The largest such vehicles are similar to railroad tank cars, which are also desi ...

explosion in Tleil,

Akkar District Akkar District ( ar, قضاء عكار) is the only district in Akkar Governorate, Lebanon. It is coextensive with the governorate and covers an area of . The UNHCR estimated the population of the district to be 389,899 in 2015, including 106,935 ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

on 15 August 2021. The disaster was reportedly exacerbated by the ongoing

Lebanese liquidity crisis The Lebanese liquidity crisis is an ongoing financial crisis affecting Lebanon, that became fully apparent in August 2019, and was further exacerbated by both the COVID-19 pandemic in Lebanon (which began in 2020) and the 2020 Beirut port explos ...

; in which the

Lebanese pound The pound or lira ( ar, ليرة لبنانية ''līra Libnāniyya''; French: ''livre libanaise''; abbreviation: LL in Latin, in Arabic, historically also £L, ISO code: LBP) is the currency of Lebanon. It was formerly divided into 100 pias ...

has plummeted and fuel has been in short supply. The survivors were evacuated by the

Lebanese Red Cross The Lebanese Red Cross (LRC) ( ar, الصليب الأحمر اللبناني, ''al-Ṣalīb al-aḥmar al-lubnānī''; french: Croix-Rouge libanaise) is a humanitarian organization and an auxiliary team to the medical service of the Lebanese Ar ...

. An investigation is underway. The fuel tanker had been confiscated by the

Lebanese Armed Forces ) , founded = 1 August 1945 , current_form = 1991 , disbanded = , branches = Lebanese Ground ForcesLebanese Air ForceLebanese Navy , headquarters = Yarze, Lebanon , flying_hours = , website ...

from black marketeers, the fuel was then distributed/taken by the locals. The son of the man whose land the fuel tanker was located on, was later arrested, accused of deliberately causing the explosion.Lebanon rages after deadly fuel tank explosion
Mohamed Hassan, 16 August 2021,

Middleeasteye Middle East Eye (MEE) is a London-based news website covering events in the Middle East and North Africa. MEE describes itself as an "independently funded online news organization that was founded in April 2014." MEE seeks to be the primary porta ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Akkar explosion, 2021 2021 disasters in Lebanon 2021 in Lebanon Explosion August 2021 events in Asia Explosions in 2021 Explosions in Lebanon Tanker explosions