A shipowner wanted over a 2020 blast at Beirut port that killed more than 220 people has been arrested in Bulgaria, officials said Tuesday.
The August 4, 2020 disaster was one of the world’s largest non-nuclear explosions, ravaging swathes of the Lebanese capital and injuring more than 6,500 people.
Authorities have said the blast was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser had been stored haphazardly for years after arriving by ship, despite repeated warnings to senior officials.
Beirut authorities identified Igor Grechushkin, a 48-year-old Russian-Cypriot citizen, as the owner of the Rhosus, the ship that transported the ammonium nitrate.
Interpol issued red notices for him and two others in 2021.
Grechushkin “has been placed in detention for a