Powerful explosion rocks Lebanon’s capital, no casualties

A bomb exploded in central Beirut on Sunday behind a branch of the Lebanese Blom Bank, causing damage to the building but with no immediate reports of casualties, security sources and witnesses said.

A bomb exploded in central Beirut on Sunday behind a branch of the Lebanese Blom Bank, causing damage to the building but with no immediate reports of casualties, security sources and witnesses said.

Red Cross members work at the site of an explosion at Blom Bank in Beirut, June 12, 2016. (Reuters)

Smoke rose from the Verdun area of Beirut after the blast was heard.

A security source said the bomb was made with 2 kilograms (4.4 lb) of explosives.

Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk told a local radio station there were no casualties.

“Thank God, there were no injuries,” he said.

The last bomb attack to hit the Lebanese capital killed more than 40 people in the southern suburbs, an area where the Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah group is dominant. The bombing was claimed by the Sunni Islamic State.

Machnouk was quoted by local media as saying Sunday’s bombing was “without any relation to previous bombings”, without elaborating.