Ammon News - Reuters - An explosion rocked Beirut's southern suburbs on Tuesday, witnesses and local media said, hitting a Hezbollah stronghold that has been the repeated target of car bomb attacks in recent months.

Images broadcast on the Shi'ite Muslim militant movement's Al Manar channel showed flames erupting from a building and a large plume of smoke billowing over a street near the charred remains of cars as a crowd gathered at the site of the blast.

There were no immediate reports on the number of casualties and the cause of the blast was not immediately clear.

Al Manar reported that the explosion occurred in the Haret Hreik area, which was the target of a car bomb attack earlier this month that killed at least five people.

Tensions from the war in neighboring Syria have increasingly spilled over into Lebanon.

The politically powerful Hezbollah has sent fighters and advisers into Syria to help its ally President Bashar al-Assad, a member of the Shi'ite-derived Alawite minority, in his fight against mainly Sunni rebels. Hezbollah-run areas in Lebanon have been targeted by a string of rocket and bomb attacks in recent months claimed by hardline Sunni militants.

Five people were killed and dozens wounded after a suicide car bomb exploded in Hezbollah's southern Beirut bastion on Tuesday, Al Arabiya News’ correspondent in the Lebanese capital reported.

Hezbollah's al-Manar channel said the blast occurred in the Haret Hriek area. State media confirmed the report. "Suicide bomber blows himself up in a car... in Haret Hreik," Lebanon's National News Agency said.

"Body parts apparently belonging to a suicide bomber were at the scene," it added.

Al-Manar broadcast footage of a plume of smoke rising over the densely populated neighborhood. Witnesses said they heard the sound of a blast in the area, which has been the target of repeated car bombs in recent months.

The blast took place on a busy commercial street that was targeted by a deadly suicide car bombing in early January that killed at least five people.

Tensions from the war in neighboring Syria have increasingly spilled over into Lebanon.

The politically powerful Hezbollah has sent fighters and advisers into Syria to help its ally President Bashar al-Assad, a member of the Shiite-derived Alawite minority, in his fight against mainly Sunni rebels. Hezbollah-run areas in Lebanon have been targeted by a string of rocket and bomb attacks in recent months claimed by hardline Sunni militants.