Hezbollah seizes large parts of Beirut

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Security sources said at least 10 people had been killed and 20 wounded. The thud of exploding grenades and crackle of automatic gunfire echoed across the city in the worst internal strife since the 1975-90 civil war.

Gunmen loyal to Hezbollah forced the pro-government Future News television off the air, said a senior official at the Beirut station. Future News is owned by Saad al-Hariri, a Sunni politician and leader of the governing coalition.

The security sources said Hezbollah and fighters from the allied Amal movement - both Shi'ite groups - had overrun offices of Hariri's Future group across the predominantly Muslim western half of Beirut.

Gunmen had also taken over the offices of Hariri's Al-Mustaqbal newspaper, witnesses said. Smoke billowed from the building's windows.

The dead included a woman and her 30-year-old son, who were killed when trying to flee Ras al-Nabae - a mixed Sunni-Shi'ite Beirut district and scene of some of the heaviest clashes.

"They were trying to flee to the mountains. Instead of reaching the mountains, they reached the hospital, dead," said a relative of the victims, who declined to give her full name because of security fears. "It's my worst nightmare."

In scenes reminiscent of the darkest days of the civil war, young men armed with assault rifles roamed the streets amid smashed cars and smouldering buildings.

The gunmen handed over several seized posts, including the Hariri media outlets and homes of some of his deputies and ministers, to the army without clashes.

AIRPORT STILL CLOSED

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