Reports say Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was the target and military is checking whether he was hit

• Middle East crisis – latest news updates

Israel has launched its heaviest air attack on Beirut in almost a year of conflict with Hezbollah, levelling a number of buildings in the city’s southern suburbs in strikes that it said targeted the militant group’s central headquarters.

Six loud explosions were heard across the Lebanese capital late on Friday afternoon, and multiple large plumes of smoke were visible from as far away as Batroun, a city an hour’s drive away.