At least one person was killed and 22 wounded in a bomb attack on an apartment building in Beirut, the latest in a string of blasts in the Lebanese capital, police and rescue services said.

The man killed was a Lebanese citizen of Armenian origin, and one of the wounded was in serious condition, said police.

The blast occurred in a four-storey building near a bank and hospital on a small side street in the Jeitaoui quarter to the south of Achrafieh hill came just before midnight, a rescue worker said.

It was the 12th bomb attack in Lebanon since the February assassination of ex-prime minister Rafiq Hariri in a massive car bomb blast in Beirut in which 20 other people died.

Security services said a 10-20 kilogram (20-40 pound) bomb exploded in the stairwell of a building. Earlier reports had spoken of a car bomb.

The facade of the apartment building was completely destroyed, balconies collapsed, and cars parked nearby were burned out.

The explosion, heard several kilometers away, blew out windows in buildings in the neighborhood and caused numerous fires, which were visible from vantage points in the city.

Lebanese troops and police sealed off the area as ambulance and fire trucks arrived and residents evacuated their apartments.

The blast came the day after Lebanon's central bank lifted the bank secrecy of the Beirut accounts of eight Lebanese and Syrian figures at the request of the UN probe into Hariri's murder.

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Lebanese soldiers and rescue workers are seen at the scene of a car bomb explosion. (AFP)