⁍ Ammonium nitrate exploded at Beirut port, causing devastation.

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⁍ Russian-leased cargo ship carried the material there in 2013.

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⁍ Chemical used in fertilisers and explosives was offloaded.

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⁍ Anger at why dangerous chemicals stored for years in built-up area.

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– The Russian-leased cargo ship that exploded in Beirut on Tuesday, killing at least 145 people and decimating buildings, arrived in the Lebanese capital in 2013 with 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate—a chemical used in explosives and fertilisers. But the captain of the Rhosus says the ship should never have stopped there. “They were being greedy,” Boris Prokoshev tells Reuters. Prokoshev says the ship was carrying the chemical from Georgia to Mozambique when the owner ordered it to make an unscheduled stop in Lebanon to pick up more cargo. Prokoshev says the crew was asked to load some heavy road equipment and take it to Jordan’s Port of Aqaba, where the ammonium nitrate was to be delivered to an explosives manufacturer. But the ship was never to leave Beirut, having tried and failed to safely load the additional cargo before becoming embroiled in a lengthy legal dispute over port fees. “It was impossible,” Prokoshev says. “It could have ruined the whole ship and I said no.” Instead, the ammonium nitrate was unloaded and put in a dock warehouse, which caught fire and exploded Tuesday not far from a built-up residential area of the city. The blast killed 145 people, injured 5,000, flattened buildings, and made more than a quarter of a million people homeless. Lebanon’s Cabinet on Wednesday agreed to place all Beirut port officials who have overseen storage and security since 2014 under house arrest.