Beirut car bomb wrecks building

A car bomb wrecked the front of a building in northern Beirut early today, wounding seven people, police said.

It was not immediately clear what the bomb’s target was, but it left a crater two meters deep and shattered windows for several blocks in the city’s New Jdeideh neighbourhood.

Four fire engines and ambulances rushed to the scene, but there was no fire.

A police general at the scene confirmed it was a car bomb.

Witnesses said the car attempted to stop in front of a bingo saloon, but security guards asked its driver to move along. The driver then parked the car a short way down the road. Minutes later it exploded.

The bomb blew off the first and second story facades of an adjacent building. It also damaged parked cars and shop shutters in the vicinity. The car containing the bomb was thrown across the street by the force of the explosion.

Lebanese television broadcast pictures of shaken residents standing in the street outside the damaged building. An elderly white-haired woman sat in a chair, looking dazed.

The explosion came amid major political turmoil in Lebanon in the wake of the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and the subsequent withdrawal of Syrian troops to east Lebanon and Syria.