Manhunt ongoing after nine killed in 'horrific' Lebanon mountain murder

Five Syrians and four Lebanese were reportedly killed in Baakline before the killer fled into surrounding fields

A major manhunt was underway in Lebanon on Wednesday as officers search for a gunman who shot and killed nine people in a small Mount Lebanon village.

Officers from the Lebanese army, state security, Internal Security Forces and local municipal police took part in the search for the suspect setting up a 20-kilometre perimeter around the Chouf area village of Baakline. Officers brought in police dogs to aid in the search, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Five Syrian nationals and four Lebanese nationals were killed in the shooting rampage through Baakline, local broadcaster LBC TV reported.

The NNA quoted security forces as reporting that the main suspect is a man identified as M.H. who killed his wife, two children and his brother before going on a shooting spree through the village and killing five others.

While gun ownership – including of rifles, shotguns and automatic weapons – is widespread in Lebanon, mass shootings of this nature are relatively uncommon. The NNA reported that a pump-action rifle and a Kalashnikov assault rifle were used.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab “denounced the horrific crime” in a statement and called on security agencies and judicial authorities to identify the perpetrator.

“It is similar to the shootings that happen in America,” Marwan Hamadeh, a member of parliament from Baakline, told reporters in Beirut. He urged security forces to detain the shooter, saying “there are some indications that he might be a mentally unstable person”.

Baakline's mayor, Abdullah Al Ghoseini, told the daily An-Nahar newspaper the motive for the shooting was unclear and took place in an area that includes housing for Syrian workers.

Lebanon is home to more than 1 million Syrian refugees, many of whom fled the neighbouring country’s war. Mr Al Ghoseini later told the LBC that the Syrians who were killed had lived in the village for almost 10 years.

The shooting comes as Lebanon experiences its worst economic and financial crisis in decades. A crash in the value of the local currency against the US dollar has led to a sharp increase in prices.

Anti-government protests resumed on Tuesday, calling on the Cabinet to work on improving living conditions in the nearly bankrupt country.