Car bomb rocks south Beirut suburbs

A car bomb has wounded dozens of people in a stronghold of Lebanon's Shia militant group Hezbollah in Beirut.

Lebanon's Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil says 53 people were hurt in the blast, in the Beir el-Abed area.

No group has said it was behind the attack.

Rebels in neighbouring Syria have threatened to target Hezbollah in Lebanon, which intervened in the fighting over the border to support President Bashar al-Assad.

Two rockets hit south Beirut in May.

Tuesday's explosion in the city's southern suburbs took place in a car park near an Islamic centre; no-one was in the car at the time.

Dramatic footage broadcast by Hezbollah-run al-Manar TV showed firefighters trying to put out the flames.

The BBC's Dima Hamdan, reporting from the scene, described considerable damage to nearby buildings. Many shops were forced to close as their windows were shattered, she said.

"Everyone started panicking. Everyone was running left and right," local shopkeeper Carole Mansour told AFP news agency.

"I can't believe someone would do this on the first day of Ramadan," she added. Many Shia Muslims in Lebanon are beginning their Ramadan fast on Tuesday, other Shia and Sunnis on Wednesday or Thursday.