Car bomb kills 5 in Hezbollah Beirut bastion

A Lebanese man carries an injured woman away from the site of a car bomb explosion in a Shiite area and stronghold of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah at the southern suburb of Beirut, Thursday Jan. 2, 2014. AP PHOTO/HUSSEIN MALLA

BEIRUT—A car bomb killed five people and wounded at least 20 in a Hezbollah bastion in south Beirut on Thursday, a health ministry source told AFP.

“According to an initial toll, five people have been killed and more than 20 injured,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

The nature of the explosion during rush hour in the Haret Hreik neighborhood was not immediately clear. An Associated Press reporter on the scene saw two bodies on the street, and at least 10 wounded people.

Images broadcast on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV showed smoke billowing at the site of the blast, and firefighters putting out several cars that were ablaze. The footage showed at least one building that had its facade blown off, and several neighboring buildings were also damaged.

Lebanon has been hit by a wave of bombings in recent months as the civil war in Syria increasingly spills over into its smaller neighbor.