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Ranvir Singh, 42, was joined by Jamal Itani to discuss the consequences of the explosion in Beirut, which has injured more than 4,000 people as the rescue mission for survivors continue. A two-week state of emergency has now been placed on the city after 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate was stored unsafely in a warehouse, leading to the catastrophe. As the Good Morning Britain host tried to get answers on who was ultimately responsible for the deadly scenes, she grilled the mayor as he said it was up to the Government to take action on the ITV show.

With the Lebanese Government reporting port officials have been placed under house arrest as an investigation gets underway as to what happened, Mr Itani said: “We don’t know all the details – the port has a separate authority that belongs to the Ministry of Public Works.

“They know exactly where it was cited and they know what the danger is and the Government is responsible for that.

“The people who are responsible now are under house arrest until the investigation is over,” he continued before Ms Singh stepped in.

“You don’t feel any sense of responsibility or guilt? Even in hindsight?” she asked, to which the politician admitted he didn’t.

“No, I feel bad but feel guilty? No. I don’t feel guilt. I feel guilty that we are hopeless and we don’t have the authority to have taken action with that regard.”

“How can you be the mayor of a major city like Beirut and not know what is happening right under your nose?” the host asked as she slammed the mayor’s response.

Mr Itani added: “The authority is served differently in Beirut. Beirut being the capital of Lebanon – the Government has full authority over Beirut.

“As the mayor of Beirut, we are responsible for the development and we are responsible for the infrastructure.

“But a lot of things like the police, the police we are not responsible for in the city. We are not responsible for the water supply.”

How can you not know what is happening?

Ranvir Singh

“It’s a different set up in Lebanon – only the city of Beirut is different to the rest of Lebanon,” the mayor explained.

Speaking of the aftermath of the explosion, the mayor told the host: “All the Lebanese are joining hands to work together to clean up the mess that has happened and start helping the people who have damaged homes.

“We’ve started already. People are on the ground. We are doing a survey on each building in Beirut that was really affected by the blast.

“And we will survive by also by donations from Lebanese people living abroad. We have already started receiving a lot and it’s going to be a big construction site in Beirut.

“We will provide homes for everybody who has lost their home – temporarily – and then the plan is to work with them to provide all the facades of the buildings to protect their homes so we can make them move back again and clean up the mess inside their home,” he continued.

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