Ex-Prime Minister dies in Beirut blast

Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in the massive bomb explosion that ravaged his motorcade on Beirut’s famed seafront corniche today, a Cabinet minister said.

“He’s dead,” said Tourism Minister Farid Khazen as he left the scene of the explosion. The explosion killed at least nine other people, including several of Hariri’s bodyguards.

The front of the famous St George Hotel in the Lebanese capital was devastated by the blast, with several balconies blown off.

Along the Mediterranean corniche, at least 20 cars were in flames or destroyed, and the fronts of several other buildings were heavily damaged, including a British bank and the landmark Phoenicia Hotel.

Explosions in Beirut – while common during the 1975-90 civil war – have become rare since the conflict ended.

However, in October, amid rising tensions between the government and opposition groups, a car bomb seriously injured an opposition politician and killed his driver in Beirut.

Hariri is a self-made billionaire who led Lebanon for most of the period since the 1975-1990 civil war ended.

Since leaving office in October, he has been in the opposition and has been opposed pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud for years.

TV footage showed dramatic scenes of one burning man struggling to get out of a car window, then falling on the ground. He was helped by a bystander who used his jacket to put out the flames, but it was not clear if he survived.

Several young women were seen with blood running down their faces. Some had to be helped from the scene.

Bystanders and ambulance workers made crude stretchers to carry the wounded to vehicles to take them to nearby hospitals.

Several men were seen dragging a dead victim partially covered by a brown blanket through the rubble-strewn street before letting go of his arms and letting him fall to the ground.

Flames still licked from his body and his face appeared grossly disfigured by burns. Heavily armed security forces cordoned off the area with yellow tape as rescue workers and investigators combed the scene apparently looking for casualties or clues to what caused the huge explosion.

The explosion near the city’s waterfront shortly before noon (10am Irish time) shook buildings in the city centre and was heard in outlying hills overlooking the Lebanese capital.

Rubble and twisted debris covered a road lined with burning cars, the smoke from which enveloping the area as firefighters carrying houses raced to douse flames.