Listen to comment from Richard Beeston, Diplomatic Editor of The Times

Pierre Gemayel, the Lebanese Industry Minister and a prominent anti-Syrian Christian politician, was assassinated today in the suburbs of Beirut.

Witnesses said that the 34-year-old was driving his car through Jdeideh, his constituency on the northern edge of Beirut, when it was rammed from behind and forced to stop. A gunman then approached the car and fired around a dozen bullets through his window at point-blank range.

Gemayel was taken to hospital, but died soon afterwards.

Gemayel is the first anti-Syrian politician to be killed since Gebran Tueni, who was assassinated in a car bomb blast on December 12 last year and the fifth anti-Syrian figure in Lebanon to be killed in the past two years.

Once his death was confirmed Lebanese television channels interrupted their broadcasts and played classical music.

The shooting risks intensifying the crisis in Lebanese politics, which has seen six Cabinet ministers resign in the past week in an attempt to bring down the Government.

Gemayel, the son of former president Amin Gemayel, was a member of the Phalange party and supporter of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, which Syrian-backed Shia Muslim militant group Hezbollah is threatening to topple if it does not get a bigger say in decision-making.

His father called for calm, telling a crowd which gathered outside the hospital where his son was taken: “Tonight I urge the people of Lebanon to listen, to have a night of reflection on the nature of martyrdom. I don’t want to accuse anyone of anything. I urge all those who loved Pierre not to overreact.”

However supporters of the anti-Syrian forces took to the streets in protest and the atmoshpere in the capital was tense.

Saad Hariri, the majority leader and son of Rafiq Hariri, the former prime minister whose assassination in February 2005 led to major street protests and forced Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon, accused Damascus of "trying to kill every free person in Lebanon".

"The cycle (of killings) has resumed," Mr Hariri said.

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