Beirut, Jan. 4, (dpa/GNA) – An explosion inside a fuel warehouse on the Lebanese-Syrian border injured at least 10 people on Sunday, the Lebanese Red Cross said.
Three were treated at the site in the border town of al-Qasr, while the seven others were transferred to local hospitals, George Kettneh, the secretary-general of the Lebanese Red Cross, told dpa.
Footage online purportedly showed flames of fire rising from the warehouse amid successive blasts reportedly caused by exploding gas cylinders.
The initial explosion was powerful and triggered a massive fire, local residents said.
The blaze was later brought under control, Bilal Rad, a civil defence official, said. “The search is ongoing for any injured,” he told the online edition of the Lebanese newspaper Annahar.
Local media reported the explosion had been caused by a short electrical failure.
The Lebanese army said the warehouse was located on the Syrian side of the border and that the privately owned facility was used to store fuel and gas.
“The warehouse is far from the army checkpoint in the area,” the army said in a brief statement, adding there were no casualties among military personnel.
The area is controlled by the Iran-allied Lebanese Hezbollah movement and is a hub for smuggling activities into neighbouring Syria.
In August, a cataclysmic explosion hit the Beirut port, killing more than 190 people, injuring 6,000 others and leaving some 300,000 more homeless. That blast was caused by tons of ammonium nitrate, which had been inadequately stored at the port.
GNA