BEIRUT — Three people died in two separate brawls over fuel scarcity in northern Lebanon on Monday, the National News Agency (NNA), the country’s official news agency, reported. According to reports, a clash that started with fistfights at a gas station in Bakhoun, a village in the northern Dinniyeh region, turned deadly after a man was shot in the melee. The victim was taken to a hospital in the nearby town of Zgharta where he died of his wounds, the agency said. Members of the security forces immediately arrived at the scene and worked to contain the situation, and it was later reported that the shooter handed himself in to authorities. In another incident, two people were killed during a clash that occurred in Al-Baddawi, which later spread to the Bab Al-Tabbaneh locality in Tripoli, where a single weapon was fired and a hand grenade was thrown in wake of a dispute over the sale and purchase of gasoline. The ambulance teams of the emergency and relief service of the Islamic Medical Association rushed to the scene and transferred both victims to the Islamic Hospital in Tripoli, where the surrounding area is currently witnessing a heavy deployment of army units. Lebanon has faced months of severe fuel shortages that have prompted long lines at gas stations and plunged the small country, dependent on private generators for power, into long hours of darkness, the Associated Press reported. The shortages are blamed on smuggling, hoarding and the cash-strapped government"s inability to secure deliveries of imported fuel. The crisis worsened when the government reduced subsidies on fuel amid a deepening financial crisis unfolding since 2019. — Agencies