Israel strikes southern Lebanese city Tyre

Lebanese state media reported an Israeli drone strike on a street in Tyre on Wednesday, after the Israeli army warned residents of swathes of the southern city to evacuate.

"An enemy drone targeted" a "street in Tyre", the National News Agency said. AFPTV footage showed a plume of thick black smoke rising from the city.

The media correspondents reported several strikes on Lebanon's Tyre on Wednesday after the Israeli army warned residents to evacuate swathes of the coastal city which boasts a UNESCO world heritage site.

Smoke rises by destroyed buildings from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs on Wednesday. AFP

AFPTV footage showed plumes of thick black smoke rising from several neighbourhoods, with parts of the evacuation area just 500 metres (yards) from the city's ancient ruins.

"Four strikes targeted the city of Tyre after the enemy threatened to bomb it," the National News Agency said, after earlier reporting that "an enemy drone targeted" a "street in Tyre".

"The situation is very bad, we're evacuating people," said Mortada Mhanna, who heads Tyre's disaster management unit.

Bilal Kashmar, the unit's media officer, told the media that many were fleeing the city and heading towards the suburbs.

"You could say that the entire city of Tyre is being evacuated," he said, adding that the once vibrant southern hub had already been emptied of most of its residents.

Smoke billows after an Israeli strike in Tyre, southern Lebanon. Reuters

An AFP photographer in the city of Sidon, further north, saw dozens of cars on the coastal highway filled with families carrying mattresses, suitcases and clothes.

Agence France-Presse