The Lebanese army has seized 28 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, a fertiliser also used in making explosives, in a town near the Syrian border.

Hundreds of tonnes of the substance, improperly stored in Beirut, caused a huge blast in August last year which killed more than 200 people, injured at least 6,500 and destroyed large parts of the capital.

“Following information about the presence of ammonium nitrate in the town of Arsal, on October 4, an army patrol and military intelligence raided a gas station in the town,” the Lebanese army said in a statement on Tuesday.

Soldiers arrested a Lebanese citizen and three Syrian men believed to have stored the ammonium nitrate inside a petrol station.

It is unclear whether the substance seized on Monday in Arsal, an arid region where residents also farm cherries, was meant to be used as fertiliser.