BEIRUT, May 27: Five people were killed and many more wounded on Thursday after soldiers opened fire in a poor Beirut suburb during protests against soaring fuel prices that brought Lebanon to a near standstill.

Late in the evening the protesters attacked the interior ministry building and set it on fire. Politicians and labour unionists intervened to try to end the country's bloodiest domestic unrest in about a decade, which comes as Beirut gears up to host an OPEC summit next week.

Lebanon's Public Prosecutor Adnan Addoum told reporters preliminary information showed four men and a woman were killed, but said the toll might change. Hospital sources said at least three people died of bullet wounds to the neck, stomach and head.

More casualties arrived at nearby hospitals, some in serious conditions. The army said 13 of its soldiers were injured. The army said soldiers opened fire in the predominantly Shia district of Hay al Silom as they tried to disperse stone-throwing crowds enraged by rising living costs and the economic policies of Prime Minister Rafik al Hariri.

Protesters charged military vehicles, damaging several and wounding five soldiers, an army statement said. Lebanon's Al Manar Television showed footage of soldiers firing automatic weapons into the air and protesters carrying away wounded civilians. Plumes of black smoke rose into the sky and ambulances rushed to the scene.

The unrest spread to several southern districts. Troops fired warning shots on the airport road, the main artery to the south, which hundreds of people blocked with burning tyres and debris, witnesses said.

Travellers were stranded at the airport, unable to get into the capital as protesters ripped up metal bollards and tipped rubbish bins, witnesses said. The army said it managed to reopen the road, but only after seven soldiers were wounded by two handgrenades lobbed at military vehicles.

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud called for an enquiry into the unrest. Lebanon's General Labour Confederation (GLC), which called the strike, urged an end to the protests.

Senior GLC official Bassam Tleiss told al-Manar the union was working with Hizbollah and Amal, parties that represent the bulk of Lebanon's Shia community, to try to restore calm. In another part of Beirut, hundreds of workers earlier protested amid tight security. -Reuters