Beirut was a battlefield for many years

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At least 45 people have died and 175 have been injured in a car bomb explosion in Beirut, Lebanon.

The bomb went off outside a block of flats and close to a mosque as worshippers were gathering for Friday night prayers in a densely populated Shia Muslim suburb.

It is the worst attack in the Lebanese capital since November 1983 when 61 people were killed in a suicide car bomb attack in the southern port of Tyre.

The bomb blew a huge crater in the street and destroyed two seven-storey blocks of flats, a mosque and a cinema. Many of the dead were passers-by.

The blast brought gunmen running on to the streets firing guns into the air to clear the roads for ambulances.

Radio stations broadcast appeals for blood donors as fire fighters and civil defence workers tried to remove bodies from under the rubble.

Fleets of ambulances jammed the entrance to west Beirut's main hospital. It was soon packed with wounded and dead.

The bomb went off near the home of a leading fundamentalist Shia Muslim cleric, Sheikh Muhammad Husain Fadlallah and it is thought he may have been the target - although he was not hurt in the attack.

Sheikh Fadlallah later accused Israel and its "internal allies" of being behind the explosion and he gave a warning to "all those who are playing with fire" that their hands will be "burned by the flames".

The blast comes at a particularly sensitive time as the Israelis are trying to complete their withdrawal from Lebanon.

Anti-American feeling is also running high. In Shia minds, the US is linked with Israel and its occupation of southern Lebanon.

Bluebird was in Coniston Water for 34 years

The boat had lain there since the accident in 1967 which killed Campbell, 46, as he attempted to break the world water speed record.

The craft was winched to the surface after a three-hour operation to tow it to the lakeside from its resting place, 150 feet (45 metres) below the surface of the lake.

The quest to raise the boat was led by diver Bill Smith.

Mr Smith said he was glad they had reached the boat as there was always the risk that lessscrupuloussouvenir hunters could get there first.

"You can see now she's in a remarkable state of preservation and she'll not rot away to nothing now, she can be kept this way," he said.

A crowd of more than 50 people gathered at the shore and saw the tail of Bluebird, emblazoned with a Union Jack, float to the surface aided by four orange air bags.

Campbell's widow Tonia Bern-Campbell flew from her home in America to witness the occasion.

Donald Campbell was trying to break his own water speed record of 276mph (429.87 km/h) on 4 January 1967, when the boat vaulted from the lake's surface.

It somersaulted repeatedly before crashing and sinking.

His body was never found and no remains have been discovered in the wreckage.

The Bluebird was discovered by enthusiasts late last year after a four-year hunt.

There were reportedly divisions among Campbell's family over whether it should be raised from its resting place.

Some family members wanted it left as a memorial to him.

The future of Bluebird is yet to be decided but she could be restored and put on display as a tribute to Donald Campbell.