Beirut blast: The inferno and the mystery ship

First, the ground shook, ever so slightly, almost imperceptibly. A quick look around confirmed the sensation; the wardrobes in the house were shaking.

One second, two seconds, three, and it stopped.

A moment of stillness, and then it struck - an earth-shattering blast.

This time the whole building shook, but that was nothing compared with the sound.

And this was more than 10km from the site of the blast in Beirut.

An instinctive rush to the windows to see smoke billowing from the direction of the capital. Then, an instinctive rush away - what if there was another one?

For many, it was the loudest explosion in memory, and there’s no shortage of explosive memories in Lebanon.