Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab on Monday announced his government’s resignation imminently over the backlash from the deadly Beirut port explosion, reported AFP.

“I announce the resignation of the government,” he said at the end of a speech in which he strove to cast himself as an external victim of a corrupt and selfish political leadership.

As per reports, the decision was made during a cabinet meeting that followed four ministerial resignations over the August 4 blast that left at least 160 dead and devastated swathes of Beirut.

Six days after the enormous chemical blast wreaked destruction across swathes of the capital and was felt as far away as the island of Cyprus, residents and volunteers were still clearing the debris off the streets.

International rescue teams with sniffer dogs and specialised equipment remained at work at the disaster’s charred “ground zero”, where the search was now for bodies and not survivors.

The Lebanese want heads to roll over the tragedy and are asking how a massive stockpile of volatile ammonium nitrate, a compound used primarily as a fertiliser, was left unsecured at the port for years.

Diab’s resignation was met with cars honking in the streets and celebratory fire in the northern city of Tripoli but was unlikely to meet the long-term expectations of the Lebanese population.