Lebanese authorities said Monday that a bomb blast the previous day that damaged the headquarters of Lebanon's second biggest bank specifically targeted that financial institution. However, Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk warned against casting blame before an investigation is finished.

Reuters, A powerful bomb has exploded outside the headquarters of the Lebanese Blom Bank in central Beirut, causing damage and injuries but no fatalities, the Interior Minister said.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility.

The Lebanese banking sector has been at the centre of an escalating crisis since the United States passed a law targeting the finances of Hezbollah The powerful Shiite Muslim group has launched verbal attacks on the central bank over the implementation of the act in Lebanon. Blom Bank is one of the banks that has closed accounts belonging to people suspected of links to Hezbollah.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah on the bomb blast. The Lebanese Red Cross said two people suffered minor injuries in the blast, which took place outside Blom Bank headquarters in the Verdun area of Beirut, the National News Agency reported.

Plumes of smoke rose from the area, and local television showed footage of a damaged building, with one hole in a concrete wall, and said shattered glass had fallen to the ground from several storeys up.

A security source said the bomb had contained 2 kilograms of explosives.

Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk said the device had been left in a bag by the back wall of the building.

"Politically it is clear that target was Blom Bank only," he said, adding that the attack had nothing to do with the militant group Islamic State, which has mounted suicide bombings in Beirut.

Mr Machnouk said initial reports indicated there had been no fatalities.

The last bomb attack to hit the Lebanese capital killed more than 40 people in the southern suburbs, an area where Hezbollah is dominant — that bombing was claimed by the Sunni Muslim Islamic State.

Reuters