Ammon News - BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rescue workers in the southern Beirut district hit by an explosion on Thursday have found nine bodies, a witness at the scene said.

The powerful blast engulfed several cars in flames and also trapped people in a nearby building.

Earlier, Lebanon’s state-run news agency says at least three people have been killed and 20 others wounded in an explosion that ripped through a stronghold of the militant Hezbollah group in a southern suburb of the capital Beirut.

Lebanese TV showed raging fires in the street in a residential and commercial neighborhood.

It was not immediately clear what caused Thursday’s explosion in the Rweiss district, but last month a powerful car bomb exploded in a neighboring suburb, wounding more than 50 people.

Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV said Thursday’s blast occurred on a main road separating Rweiss from Beir al-Abed, the site of last month’s explosion. The area is heavily Shiite and is one of Hezbollah’s bastions of support.