At least 50 dead and thousands injured after massive explosion rocks Beirut

Hani Abughazaleh and friends had been fishing off the coast of Beirut, Lebanon.  

"We heard a couple of small explosions and saw white smoke rising above," he told CNN.  

CNN's producer in Beirut Ghazi Balkiz said the initial explosion happened at 6:07 p.m. local time.

Abughazaleh began taking a video at 6:08 p.m. local time and seven seconds later, the massive red explosion cloud appears. The sudden and intense explosion is so powerful a massive, visible shockwave forms in the sky.

Watch the moment:

He said when the shockwave hit the group, it almost knocked them off the boat.

"We saw a red plume rising and people panicked wondering if it's some sort of lethal gas," he said.

"Oh my God," someone in the video exclaims.

Two more videos taken by Abughazaleh shows the red cloud billowing above Beirut.  

As the boat began to make its way back to the shore along the coast, the red cloud appears to have dispersed and a red haze appears in the air.

"I drove home to asses the damage in my house and saw hundreds of injured people," he said.

The death toll in the Beirut blast has doubled to at least 50 killed, with many more feared dead, Health Minister Hamad Hassan told reporters outside a hospital Tuesday.

At least 2,750 people were injured in the massive explosion that shook the capital, Hassan said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said "rescue and aid" were on the way to Lebanon following a massive explosion in Beirut on Tuesday. 

"France stands by Lebanon’s sides. Always. French rescue and aid is on its way," he added.

Macron also talked on the phone with his Lebanese counterpart, Michel Aoun, following the incident, the Elysée told CNN.

Marwan Naamani/DPA/ZUMA Press

Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said in a tweet that the scale of the losses after an explosion rocked the capital Beirut “was too great to be described” with the “biggest loss is the loss of dozens of dead and injured.” 

Lebanon's health minister told reporters earlier that at least 25 people have been killed and more than 2,500 injured in Tuesday’s massive blast at Beirut port.

 STR/AFP/Getty Images

At least 25 people have been killed and more than 2,500 injured in Tuesday’s massive blast at Beirut port, Health Minister Hamad Hassan told reporters.

The cause of the explosion remains unclear.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post misstated the number of injuries in the headline. The health minister said more than 2,500 people were injured.

The secretary-general of the Kataeb political party, Nazar Najarian, was killed in the powerful explosion on Tuesday, according to Lebanon state-run NNA news. 

Najarian was in his office when the explosion happened. He died after being critically injured.

Valarie Fakhoury, a British grandmother with her Lebanese daughter and granddaughter, stand outside the emergency ward of a hospital in central Beirut. Janine Haidar/AFP/Getty Images

Hundreds of people have been hospitalized across the Lebanese capital and many are feared dead in the aftermath of a massive blast that rocked Beirut, shattering glass and damaging buildings miles from the site.

Hospital emergency rooms are being inundated by the injured, with the emergency section of one main hospital – the American University of Beirut Medical Center – unable to receive more patients, partly due to blast damage, according to state media.

The Lebanese Red Cross, health officials and politicians have called on people to donate blood to help the injured in hospital.

Images from the city show cars, ambulances and military vehicles packed with the walking wounded and others who appeared not to be moving.

While officials have yet to announce an official number of casualties, multiple members of the emergency services and politicians speaking to local media have expressed worries that there could be a high death toll.

The World Health Organization’s regional office for the Eastern Mediterranean is working with partners, including Lebanon’s Public Health Ministry, to respond to “urgent needs” following the “massive explosion” that rocked Beirut on Tuesday. 

The organization said it is working with the country's health ministry “to make sure trauma supplies are available.”

The President of the European Council Charles Michel has tweeted his support for the people of Lebanon and the families of the victims of the blast that rocked Beirut on Tuesday. 

“My thoughts are with the people of #Lebanon and with the families of the victims of the tragic #BeirutBlast,” Michel wrote. “The EU stands ready to provide assistance and support.”

“Stay strong,” Michel also wrote. 

Here's the tweet: