A wreckage of a vehicle is seen at a site of an explosion at the Dahr al-Baidar area in Lebanon's Eastern Bekaa Valley
Wreckage of a vehicle is seen at a site of an explosion at the Dahr al-Baidar area in Lebanon's Eastern Bekaa Valley Reuters

Lebanon's security chief escaped a suicide car bombing in the country's Bekaa Valley which killed a member of the internal security forces and wounded another 32 people.

The explosion happened at a Lebanese police checkpoint on the Beirut-Damascus highway while the convoy was passing through. Major-general Abbas Ibrahim told a local television station that he miraculously escaped the blast.

Security forces confirmed that the suicide bomber blew himself up after being stopped to be searched. The Interior ministry said six security personnel were among the wounded in the explosion.

The man killed was Mahmoud Jamaleddine, a warrant officer in the Internal Security Forces.

The attack came after Lebanese security forces raided a hotel in the capital Beirut looking for terror suspects with a senior security source saying that police were "working on thwarting a big security plot".

Jihadist groups fighting in Syria have claimed responsibility for previous car bombing attacks targeting Beirut's southern suburbs, in retaliation for Hezbollah's role in supporting Assad forces in the war-torn country.

Related