Beirut explosion death toll climbs to 190 and 300,000 homeless

The death toll from the Beirut explosion earlier this month has risen to 190 with at least three people still missing. 

Lebanon’s caretaker government said in a statement Sunday that authorities are investigating the cause of why the highly explosive material stored at the port blew up.

The deadly explosion left about 300,000 people homeless and caused $15 billion in direct damage. 

According to the report issued Sunday, 50,000 homes, nine major hospitals and 178 schools had been damaged in the blast. 

The government quit following the tragedy. 

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday warned that Lebanon risks a return to civil war if it is left alone to deal with the crisis that followed the deadly explosion.

Macron was speaking as he prepared to head to Lebanon on Monday in a new bid to press its leaders to undertake radical reform in the wake of the explosion.

“If we let Lebanon go in the region and if we somehow leave it in the hands of the depravity of regional powers, it will be civil war” as well as “the defeat of what is the very identity of Lebanon,” he said.