Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab has proposed holding early elections as protesters angry over the Beirut port blast stormed ministries, shots were heard and a police officer was killed during clashes that left at least 238 injured.
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"I will put forward a bill to hold early parliamentary elections on Monday," Diab said in a televised address.
"I call on all political parties to agree on the next stage ... I am with [the] Lebanese aspiring for change."
Diab floated the proposal as thousands of protesters, furious with their leaders after Tuesday's monumental blast at the Beirut port, took to the city streets to demand drastic reforms.
"The scale of the catastrophe is bigger than anyone can imagine," Diab said, referring to the blast. "We are in a state of emergency."
Protests escalated into clashes between protesters and police as furious residents mourned the victims and called for the removal of what they described as "corrupt politicians."
Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters, a number of whom stormed several government buildings, including the ministries of foreign affairs, economy and energy, witnesses said.
The Lebanese Red Cross said at least 238 people had so far been injured, 63 of whom were transferred to hospitals.
Eyewitnesses said shots were heard near the parliament building.
A police officer was killed after being "attacked" by protesters while "helping people trapped inside Le Gray Hotel" in central Beirut, the country's Internal Security Force said in a tweet.
Elsewhere, demonstrators raised a huge placard at the entrance of the Foreign Ministry reading: "Beirut is the capital of revolution," according to the Lebanese privately owned television MTV.
Earlier, crowds packed the roads leading to the city's central Martyr Square, banging on the iron fences on the pavements in a demonstration of their fury.
A call to join a march from ground zero of the blast site towards the square in Beirut's central district asked participants to wear black in a sign of mourning for the victims.
"We want to vent our anger against the ruling class, who knew about the dangerous substance stored inside Beirut port and did nothing," Roula Ajouz, a participant in the march, told dpa near the blast site.
On Tuesday, a huge explosion ripped through Beirut's port, killing at least 158 people, wounding 6,000, displacing some 250,000 to 300,000 from their homes and inflicting massive destruction across the city.
The blast took place in a warehouse housing some 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate.
Several foreign officials meanwhile arrived in Beirut to show solidarity with Lebanon, including European Council President Charles Michel, who called for an independent inquiry into the cause of the catastrophe and offered European expertise.
Promising European support, Michel said that 33 million euros ($A54 million) for emergency needs had already been mobilised by the bloc for Lebanon, along with more than 250 rescue workers.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who visited Beirut on Thursday, plans to hold an international video conference on Sunday to raise funding for Lebanon, sources close to the presidential office said.
Australian Associated Press