BEIRUT (AFP) - At least 22 people were killed and 146 people wounded in double bomb attacks outside the Iranian embassy in Beirut on Monday, Lebanon's health minister told AFP.

Mr Ali Hassan Khalil said the toll in the blast, which took place in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, was not final and it could rise further.

Lebanese media broadcast harrowing images from the scene of the blast, with charred bodies on a street lined by blazing cars and strewn with the rubble.

Cars and trees were blackened, and men hurriedly carried the wounded away from the scene on stretchers.

Hezbollah, which is fighting alongside the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in war-hit Syria, has seen its strongholds in southern Beirut targeted twice by car bombs this year.

The blasts, on July 9 and August 15, killed 27 people.

Tensions in Lebanon over the conflict in Syria have been rising, with Hezbollah's involvement criticised by many Sunni Lebanese who back the Sunni-dominated uprising against Mr Assad.