Twenty-two people have been killed and 117 injured in Israeli air strikes on central Beirut on Thursday evening, Lebanon's health ministry said. BBC reporters heard loud explosions echoing from the site of the strikes in Bachoura, a small Shia area in the capital. Rescuers were seen digging through rubble at the scene.

The attack, for which Lebanese officials blamed Israel, appeared to be the deadliest in the Lebanese capital in more than a year of fighting between the Israeli military and Hezbollah.

The death toll in Israeli strikes launched on Thursday in central Beirut rose to 22, the Lebanese Ministry of Health has said. One hundred and seventeen others were injured, the ministry added. The attack was the third to hit central Beirut since Israel started a military campaign in Lebanon last month targeting the Iranian-allied Hezbollah militia,