8 killed in huge bomb blast in Beirut

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A car bomb blast in Beirut, Lebanon, kills at least two and injures another 15 people. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports. By NBC News staff and wire reportsUpdated at 9:57 a.m. ET: BEIRUT, Lebanon --At least eight people were killed and 78 wounded by a huge blast that  exploded in a street in central Beirut on Friday, a security official told NBC News, raising fears that sectarian violence raging in neighboring Syria had spread to the Lebanese capital.

It was not immediately clear whether the blast had been caused by a car bomb, although all evidence pointed to that, the country's top military judge Hatem Madi told NBC News in Beirut.

It was also not clear if  the explosion targeted any political figure in Lebanon's divided community but  it occurred at a time of heightened tension between Lebanese factions on  opposite sides of the Syria conflict.Slideshow: Bombing in BeirutReutersHuge blast explodes in a central Beirut street injures dozens, kills at least eight.Launch slideshow

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