Suspected bomb blast rocks Beirut

An explosion rocked a suburb on the northern edge of Beirut tonight.

Police and witnesses believe it was a bomb.

It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties in the explosion shortly after midnight.

But the leading Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation television station reported several people were injured when a bomb in a car blew up in the New Jdeideh neighbourhood.

It was not clear what the target may have been.

The explosion comes amid major political turmoil in Lebanon in the wake of the February 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a bombing, and the subsequent withdrawal of the Syrian army from Lebanon to the east.