Lebanon blast victims file complaints

Beirut: The Beirut Bar Association on Wednesday handed the public prosecutor almost 700 criminal complaints from victims of the city´s deadly August 4 port blast, Lebanon´s National News Agency said.

The explosion of a massive stockpile of ammonium nitrate in a dockside warehouse killed more than 200 people, wounded thousands and ravaged swathes of the capital Beirut. "We presented 679 complaints today, in the name of the families of those killed, wounded and affected," Bar Association head Melhem Khalaf said, according to the NNA.

"We cannot stop until a verdict is pronounced," Khalaf said, calling the blast "a horrific catastrophe." It was the first wave of complaints to be filed of around 1,400 cases being compiled by the Bar Association.