No indication of attack in Beirut: US defence officials contradict Trump

US defence department officials say they do not know what Trump was talking about, CNN reports

Officials of the US Defence Department have contradicted President Donald Trump, saying that there is no clear indication that the massive explosion in Beirut was an "attack".

The three officials of the US Defence Department said that they do not know what Trump was actually talking about, CNN reported.

As per CNN, one official said that if there were indications of anyone in the region pulling something off of this scale, it would have triggered an automatic increase in force protection for US troops and assets in the region.

Earlier, while speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Trump had offered sympathy to the people of Lebanon after the explosion took place and he labelled the incident as "terrible attack".

"Looks like a terrible attack. It would seem like it based on the explosion. I've met with some of our great generals and they just seem to feel that it was not a -- some kind of manufacturing explosion type of event. This was a -- seems to be according to them, they would know better than I would, but they seem to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind," CNN quoted Trump as saying.

A massive blast took place in Lebanon's capital Beirut on Tuesday damaging several buildings.

Al Jazeera had reported that the force of the blast was massive and it caused panic in the streets and pieces of glass were seen everywhere.

Though the cause of the blast is unknown, the initial reports stated that the explosion occurred in Beirut's port area containing warehouses.

Over 70 people have been killed while thousands of others were wounded in the massive explosion on Tuesday in Beirut which shattered buildings and caused widespread damage.