Gunfire broke out Tuesday in a town south of Beirut, where clashes last week killed two people and raised the risk of sectarian strife in Lebanon, the state news agency (NNA) said.

NNA said an army patrol had deployed to the Khaldeh area to calm the situation, but gave no further details.

Last week's clashes in Khaldeh between Sunni Muslims and Shiites, in which a 13-year-old boy was killed, had prompted a flurry of contacts among Lebanese politicians seeking to contain tensions.

A security source said the brother of one of those involved in Thursday's confrontation came to the area Monday, angering the Sunni Arab tribe to which the boy belonged. They shot at the building he was visiting.

The tribe last week accused members of the Shiite group Hezbollah of opening fire, a charge it categorically denied.

The Lebanese army had said the problem Thursday spiraled out of a row over a poster put up by Shiites to commemorate Ashura, marking the seventh-century martyrdom of Imam Hussein.

French President Emmanuel Macron is currently visiting Lebanon to press for the formation of a government that can enact long-demanded reforms to help the country exit an economic meltdown compounded by last month's explosion at the Port of Beirut.