'Hezbollah arms cache' blows up

Reports from southern Lebanon say there have been a number of explosions at a weapons depot belonging to the Hezbollah movement.

The reports say the depot was housed in an abandoned building near the village of Khirbet Silim in the Dabsheh area. There were no reports of casualties.

Hezbollah denied any link with the blasts and attributed them to the detonation of unexploded ordnance.

Lebanese troops cordoned off the area and restricted access to the site.

No-one was injured in the explosions but they caused panic among local residents who reportedly mistook them for an Israeli air raid.

Israel and the mainly Shia Muslim militant and political movement Hezbollah fought a fierce 34-day conflict in 2006 and the area is littered with cluster munitions dropped during the Israeli bombardment.

Fighting ended under the terms of a United Nations ceasefire which banned Hezbollah from conducting any military action between the border and the Litani River to the north.