Deadly explosion rocks Beirut suburb

An explosion ripped through a car park in a predominantly Christian suburb of Lebanon's capital Beirut on Thursday, killing two people. Local media reports said the victims were handling explosives inside a vehicle when the blast occurred.

By News Wires (text)

AFP - A blast ripped through a parking lot in a Christian suburb of Beirut on Thursday, killing two people, a security official told AFP.

"Two people were killed in the blast that took place in a parking lot, near a commercial centre," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The two victims were identified as Ihsan Dia and Hassan Nassar.

Lebanese television said they were believed to have been handling explosives inside their vehicle when the blast went off.

A witness told AFP he saw rescuers carrying away from the site a man whose arm and leg had been torn off in the explosion.

A pool of blood could be seen on the ground in the parking lot.

The police official said a car belonging to the son of Lebanese judge Albert Serhan was in the parking lot when the blast went off but it was unclear whether it was targeted.

Army and police forces immediately rushed to the site along with the Red Cross and cordoned off the area.

Lebanon was rocked by a wave of assassinations from 2005 to 2008 which killed anti-Syrian journalists and politicians.

Billionaire ex-premier Rafiq Hariri was killed in a massive Beirut bombing on February 14, 2005 along with 22 others.

The Hariri assassination sparked a wave of mass protests which, combined with international pressure, forced Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in April 2005, ending a 29-year deployment.