Beirut - At least seven protestors were killed Sunday in clashes between the Lebanese army and opposition followers from the Shiite Amal movement protesting power cuts in Beirut, security sources said.

'We have a new casualty toll ... we have two Amal members killed, four Hezbollah, an ambulance driver and the seventh is a civilian,' Ali Hamdan, an official from the Shiite Amal movement told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa.

A Lebanese security source told dpa that shortly after calm returned to streets in the capital, members of Amal movement entered a street in the Christian area of Ain Roumneh and tossed a hand grenade, wounding at least four people from the area.

The clashes erupted after dozens of opposition followers, mainly from the Amal movement, blocked a road linking the city's Shiite southern suburbs with the city's eastern Christian neighbourhoods, prompting the army to intervene.

Earlier reports said four were killed, and 18 were wounded.

Late Sunday, the army said it would investigate the shooting during clashes between troops and members of Amal movement, a close ally of the Hezbollah movement which leads Lebanon's opposition.

Beirut's Shiite southern suburbs is a hotbed of Hezbollah support. Protestors had Sunday used burning tyres and cars to block the road linking it to areas such as Ain Roumneh.