BEIRUT, Lebanon - Three people were killed by celebratory gunfire in Lebanon overnight after the re-election of pro-Syrian politician Nabih Berri as parliamentary speaker, police said.

Another seven people were injured when Berri supporters fired automatic weapons into the air in celebrations that ran through the night in Beirut's majority Shiite southern suburbs and the eastern Bekaa valley, they said.

Police have arrested a number of people over the shootings.

Berri, an MP with the Shiite Amal movement, was re-elected as speaker Tuesday in the inaugural session of Lebanon's first parliament since the 1975-90 civil war not controlled by pro-Damascus factions.

Under Lebanon's sectarian system, the speakership is reserved for the Shiite community -- the country's largest and poorest.

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