Editor's note: This is a developing story that will be updated as more news comes in.
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Lebanese Red Cross said at least 37 people were killed and 141 more injured in a suspected suicide attack in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday.
Two blasts hit the neigborhood of Bourj el-Barajneh, close to Beirut's airport, shortly after 6 p.m. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Witnesses told the Daily Star newspaper that the second bomb exploded as people gathered near the site of the first explosion.
Some outlets reported at least 180 people injured by the blasts.
#Beaking: At least 37 killed, 181 hurt in twin suicide bombing in #Beirut + first images pic.twitter.com/34lDZtfYhr
— Gulf News (@gulf_news) November 12, 2015
UPDATE: At least 37 people killed in Beirut suicide blasts https://t.co/3joqhea1V8 pic.twitter.com/Rb9EqiuKn7
— Al Jazeera America (@ajam) November 12, 2015
There were nervous scenes at a hospital near the bomb site, where people were trying to discover the fates of relatives. One woman fainted.
Outside Alrassoul hospital, near blast site, where some casualties being brought. Saw one man being detained by crowd.
— Richard Hall (@_RichardHall) November 12, 2015
Resident says his friend tried to apprehend the second bomber, wrapping his arms around him, but was killed went bomb was detonated.
— Richard Hall (@_RichardHall) November 12, 2015
Beirut’s southern suburbs, home to a large Shia population, were the target of a number of attacks last year by radical militant groups from Syria. The Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra were suspected in attacks in 2014. Both groups are fighting the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah in Syria, which has thrown its weight behind Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the conflict.
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Thursday’s attacks are the first in the capital since June of last year, when Beirut saw two explosions in the space of a week. First a suicide bomber blew himself up, injuring 12, in the Tayyouneh neighborhood at the entrance to the southern suburbs; a suicide bombing at a Beirut hotel, which killed only the bomber, followed a day later.
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