Blast kills one near Beirut mall
1 killed in major explosion near Beirut shopping mall
Beirut: A woman was killed when an explosive device detonated near a shopping mall in Ashrafieh in the Christian sector of the Lebanese capital, on Sunday, a security source said.
Witnesses said 12 people were wounded by glass when windows in the area of the blast shattered.
"There was an explosive device either under a car or next to a car," another security source said, 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 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 and 48 people were killed in Lebanon's bloodiest internal fighting since the 1975-90 civil war.
