LEBANON: An explosion under a car parked by a shopping mall kills a woman in eastern Beirut

An explosion under a car parked by a shopping mall in the mainly Christian east of the capital Beirut has killed a woman, a security source said. A woman was killed when an explosive device was detonated under a parked car near a shopping mall in eastern Beirut in the early hours of Monday (May 21), a security source said. Witnesses said six people were wounded by glass when windows in the area of the blast shattered. Another security source said that there was an explosive device either under a car or next to a car, adding it took place in the car park of a popular mall in a Christian district in east Beirut. The first source said the woman was killed when a wall at her house collapsed on her. A Reuters witness said a plume of smoke could be seen rising from the area. Witnesses said the bomb appeared to have exploded under a car in a car park near the ABC department store, one of the biggest stores in Lebanon. The blast came as Lebanese troops battled Islamist militants based in a Palestinian refugee camp in the north of the country on Sunday (May 20) and 48 people were killed in Lebanon's bloodiest internal fighting since the 1975-90 civil war. Four Fatah al-Islam members were charged with bombings in the capital earlier this year, but it was not immediately clear if there was any link between Sunday's explosion and the fighting in the north.

ITN Source | May 21, 2007

Tags:. .place. .four. .fighting. .woman. .reuters