Ammon News - AMMONNEWS- Lebanese police are using tear gas to repel demonstrators trying to storm the Serail, the headquarters of Najib Mikati, amid calls for the prime minister to resign.

Following the funeral nearby of Brigadier-General Wissam al-Hassan, a senior intelligence official and opponent of the Syrian regime, many mourners headed towards the Serail, in the city centre, but security forces blocked them by firing into the air and using tear gas.

Earlier, thousands descended on central Beirut for the public funeral, prompting heavily armed troops and police to set up road blocks and cordon off the capital's Martyrs' Square.

Soldiers brought the flag-draped coffins of Hassan and his bodyguard to the square for burial.

Hassan, an anti-Syrian official, and the bodyguard were killed in a huge bomb blast on Friday that also killed a civilian woman.

The attack triggered violent protests and was seen as a sign that Lebanon is steadily getting drawn deeper into the conflict in neighbouring Syria.

Mourners clad in black carried pictures of Hassan and chanted slogans against the Syrian regime in response to the attack.

Many waved the sky-blue flag of the opposition Future movement led by Saad Hariri. Others carried Lebanon's cedar tree national flag but Syrian rebel flags were also seen.