Security officials in Lebanon said that at least 10 people were killed in a bomb attack which was launched against a security convoy in Beirut on Friday. A senior official was among those killed.  

Captain Wissam Eid, a member of the Internal Security Forces (ISF), was one of the ten victims, according to an army officer.

One senior security official told AFP: "Eid was a key member of the ISF and was involved in many investigations concerning bombings in Lebanon, including a February 2007 bombing in a Christian area. He was involved in sensitive probes and this is a major loss for us."

Captain Eid was working for eight years for the ISF and was in his 30s.

According to the General Ashraf Rifi, head of the ISF, besides Eid and his bodyguard, other four people have died.

He said: "This will not deter us from our mission to protect the country and ensure security. This is a message to the Internal Security Forces following the message sent to the army in December when General Francis el-Hajj was killed in a car bomb."

The blast took place around 10 a.m. (0800GMT) near a highway in Hazmieh, outside Beirut, in an area with office buildings and parking lots.

Almost four cars were destroyed by the flames and the blast made a crater of 16 foot wide into the road.

Local television showed images with local residents and office workers running through the cars in the search of their loved ones. Firefighters and ambulances arrived at the place of the accident providing assistance.

Plumes of black smoke were rising from the scene of the accident.

Cars from the parking lot nearby were also affected by the force of the blast. In the footages released by the local television you could see the image of one corpse burnt in a damaged vehicle.

This attack comes ten days later after the attacks of a U.S. Embassy convoy by a car bomb. Three people have died in that blast and a dozen were injured.

Over the past three years Lebanon has suffered from bomb attacks which targeted politicians and journalists which were against the Syrian influence present in the country. Many of the attacks were said to be the work of its neighbor, Syria. This charge was rejected by Damascus.