BEIRUT, Jan 27: At least four people were killed in Beirut on Sunday as gunmen opened fire on the army during riots over power cuts in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital.

The bloodshed came amid fears of spiralling violence in Lebanon which has been gripped by a protracted presidential crisis, and two days after a massive car bombing killed a top intelligence officer and four other people.

The violence swept the mainly Shiite southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of the Shiite Muslim militant movement Hezbollah which is spearheading a campaign against the ruling coalition.

Youths spread out across southern Beirut armed with sticks and iron bars, pelting cars with stones and setting some on fire.

An official from the Amal movement, a pillar of the opposition, said one of its members, Ahmad Hamza Hamza, 21, was killed along with three Hezbollah activists. “Hamza has passed away after being shot in the back,” the Amal official said, adding that he was unable to identify the source of the fire.

The army said two people were killed and an unspecified number were wounded and that it had opened an investigation into the bloodshed.—AFP