ABOUT 50 people were reportedly killed and hundreds injured when a fuel tanker exploded in northern Lebanon in the early hours of today.

Among the dead were army and security personnel who had seized the the oil container, which the military said had been hidden by black marketeers.

They were handing out fuel to residents of al-Tleil, a village in the Akkar region, one of Lebanon’s poorest provinces, when the explosion took place.

It was unclear how the tanker had ignited, but some suggested that bullets had been fired in a deliberate attack.

The Lebanese Red Cross took many of the wounded and dead to hospitals, but a large number were turned away because the hospitals are unable to treat severe burns.

Interim Health Minister Hamad Hasan called for international support.

“We need urgent help to evacuate some of the injured abroad,” he said, adding: “There are cases that are more than the ability of Lebanese hospitals to handle.”

The country’s crisis deepened last week when Central Bank governor Riad Salameh cut the fuel subsidy amid continuing electricity blackouts and shortages of basic goods.

He was accused of a “coup against the people” for acting without consulting President Michel Aoun or the acting government.

But he insisted that the cut was necessary, since foreign currency reserves have dwindled below $14 billion (£10bn).

Medics at the American University of Beirut Medical Centre (AUBMC) warned on Saturday that hundreds of patients would die as a result of the fuel shortages.

“[The AUBMC is facing an imminent disaster due to the threat of a forced shutdown starting the morning of Monday August 16,” they said in a statement.

The medical centre said that a switch-off of electricity generators would cause 40 adults and 15 children using ventilators to die instantly, while some 180 renal patients would die within days for lack of dialysis.

“Hundreds of cancer patients, adults and children, will die in subsequent weeks … without adequate treatment,” AUBMC said.

There have been angry street protests against Lebanon’s escalating crisis, which has seen the currency lose about 90 per cent of its value since 2019, pushing 78 per cent of the population below the poverty line.

Cheers were heard at filling stations on Saturday as the Lebanese army was deployed to seize supplies of petrol that had allegedly been hoarded and distribute them to the people free of charge.

Retail worker Nour told the Morning Star: “The government is joking with us. Today they turned the electricity on for five minutes. Our shop has lost stock because the fridges have no power.

“This cannot continue. The people are starving in front of the world. We are good people. We don’t deserve this.”