BEIRUT, (SANA) – 8 people were killed and more than 90 others were injured in an explosion that ripped through al-Ashrafiyeh area in eastern Beirut on Friday.

The blast was caused by an explosive device placed in a car parked in front of a residential building in the district of Sasin Square in al-Ashrafiyeh.

Several news agencies quoted al-Jadeed TV as saying that Wissam al-Hasan, Director of the Information Branch in the Lebanese Internal Security Forces, was killed in the explosion.

The Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) quoted a statement by the Lebanese Civil Defense as saying that a fire broke out in the area, with clouds of smoke obscuring the sky, while ambulances and civil defense worked to transport the injured to hospitals in the area.

The statement said that the explosion damaged the façade of the building in front of which the car bomb was parked, with the building's floors sustaining severe material damages due to the force of the blast, along with nearby buildings.

A security source told al-Manar TV that the blast left a crater more than one meter deep, and that the force of the blast threw parts of the car in which it was placed for more than 30 meters.

Lebanese Interior Minister Marwan Sharbel, who visited the scene of the explosion, instructed security forces to work to uncover the circumstances surrounding the blast.

M. Ismael / H. Sabbagh