BEIRUT: Supporters of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Future Movement clashed Tuesday with students loyal to Speaker Nabih Berri with chairs, trash cans and stones at the Lebanese American University (LAU) in the capital, witnesses said.

They said the fight had pitted Future Movement partisans against supporters of Berri’s Amal Movement and left at least one person injured.

The witnesses said the fight was sparked after Amal-affiliated students shouted slogans in support of Berri as a Future Movement convoy drove past the university’s upper gate blaring songs in celebration of the late Rafik Hariri’s birthday, which falls on Nov. 1.

Hariri, a former Lebanese prime minister, and 22 other people were killed on Feb. 14, 2005, after a massive car bomb hit Hariri’s motorcade while making its way through the Ain al-Mreisseh area of Downtown Beirut.

LAU released a statement hours after the clash took place, in which it said: “The university regrets to have to suspend classes on the university campus in Beirut following the scuffle that occurred today, Tuesday, Nov. 1 outside campus, and developed in the area adjacent to the gate.”

It added that classes will resume tomorrow and necessary measures will be taken in cooperation with security forces to preserve the safety of students.

However, a security source told The Daily Star that the clash had been triggered by an argument as pro-Hariri students distributed fliers on the occasion of Rafik Hariri's birthday.

The witnesses said they saw stones, chairs, trash cans and other hard objects being hurled at the gate shortly after midday.

“Hariri supporters at LAU’s upper gate are now in a tense face-off with pro-Amal students on the opposite side of the gate,” one student told The Daily Star by telephone.

The student, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said LAU’s security guards had sealed off all entrances to the university in Beirut’s Qoreitem neighborhood, preventing undergraduates from entering or leaving the facility.

He said the head of the LAU’s security unit, Maj. Ahmad Hassouna, was injured in the brawl.

Several students said they saw Hassouna head bandaged. According to an LAU professor, Hassouna had been struck by a helmet and that he was being treated for the injury.

“But Hassouna is doing well and there were no injuries among students or staff members at the university,” the professor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Daily Star.

The professor said classes at the college had been suspended as a result of the incident and that students were sent home.