Rachel Smalley's dash to site of tragedy

Lebanese army and civilians gather near the site of a twin suicide attack in Burj al-Barajneh, southern Beirut. Photo / AP

NZ broadcaster Rachel Smalley achieves athletic milestone in Beirut, then inspects area where dozens died yesterday.

Broadcaster Rachel Smalley, recovering in Beirut from her first marathon, hot-footed it to a bomb site where at least 43 people were killed in a busy shopping street.

Smalley told the Weekend Herald how she took a taxi to the impoverished Burj al-Barajneh neighbourhood, about 7.5 km south of downtown Beirut, after hearing of the two blasts in what is considered a stronghold of the Shia movement Hizbollah near a Palestinian refugee camp.

The Auckland-based journalist and Newstalk ZB radio host arrived on the scene around 10pm on Thursday (9am yesterday New Zealand time), four hours after the explosions, which also left more than 240 people wounded and for which Isis has claimed responsibility.

That is believed to be in revenge for Hizbollah's contribution of troops in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

CNN quoted a Lebanese security source last night as saying a would-be suicide bomber who survived the attack told investigators he and three other attackers arrived from Syria two days earlier for the deadly mission.

The man, a Lebanese national, was taken into custody after the blasts but the other three were killed in the explosions.

Rachel Smalley completes her first marathon, in Beirut. Photo / Twitter

Although the victims had all been taken away by the time Smalley reached the scene, she said she witnessed damage to buildings and market stalls lining about half a block of the narrow street where the bombs exploded.

"It is hard to describe; there was shrapnel, and windows blown out," she said.

"I met a local who showed me on his phone some of the images of the aftermath - it looked, as you would expect, pretty awful."

Smalley was packing to return home to Auckland last night when contacted, having completed the Beirut Marathon in 4 hours, 25 minutes and 34 seconds.

The rest of her team of about 16 Kiwis who ran the 42km race through the hot streets of the Lebanese capital for World Vision's Forgotten Millions campaign had headed home before the blasts.

"They were all in touch [with Smalley] when they got back, so I think it's unsettled a few people," she said. "It's just tragic to hear that it happened - it's another needless loss of life."