Beirut, Mar 3 (IANS): One person was killed and seven others were injured in armed clashes at a refugee camp in southern Lebanon, local media reported.

According to the National News Agency on Thursday, the fights that broke out in the Ain al-Hilweh camp, a Palestinian refugee camp in Saida, began as a personal argument and escalated into an armed fight which took place on Wednesday.

Besides casualties, the clashes also resulted in significant damage to a number of cars and shops, the L'Orient Today, an English news outlet in Lebanon, reported on its website as quoted by Xinhua news agency report.

The shooting renewed Thursday morning after a period of calm through Wednesday night. Schools in the Ain al-Hilweh camp, run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), issued a decision to close their doors on Thursday "due to the security conditions and the ongoing clashes".

Schools and universities close to the camp also shut down on Thursday to "preserve the safety of students".

Several Palestinian factions have stepped in to intervene in the deadly clash while the Palestinian ambassador in Lebanon Ashraf Dabbour has been working on mediation, local media reported.