Dozens of people have been injured after a car bomb exploded in a stronghold of Lebanon’s Shia militant group Hezbollah in Beirut.

A Red Cross official said 37 people had been hurt in the blast, in the Beir el-Abed area.

TV pictures showed vehicles on fire and a cloud of black smoke. No group has said it was behind the attack.

Dozens of people have been injured after a car bomb exploded in a stronghold of Lebanon’s Shia militant group Hezbollah in Beirut

Rebels in neighboring Syria have threatened to target Hezbollah, which intervened in the fighting there to support President Bashar al-Assad.

Two rockets hit south Beirut in May.

The explosion was caused by a car bomb in the car park of an Islamic centre, Hezbollah-run al-Manar TV said.

Dramatic footage broadcast by the station showed firefighters trying to put out the flames.

“This is a message, but we will not bow,” Hezbollah official Ziad Waked told al-Manar, AP reports.

Hezbollah fighters were instrumental in Syrian government forces’ strategic victory in Qusair in early June.

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