BEIRUT, July 30, 2009 (AFP) - A leading Lebanese Shiite cleric issued a fatwa on Thursday authorising the killing of stray dogs after some were blamed for attacking residents in villages in the south of the country.

"The rule is to protect animals and preserve their lives," Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who has followers throughout the Shiite Muslim world, said in a statement containing the religious edict.

"But if their behaviour represents a danger for the lives of people... as is the case with stray or fierce dogs, then killing them is authorised," he said according to the statement, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.

Fadlallah was responding to a question sent to him by residents of the south Lebanon village of Nabatiyeh, where they said "several people had been seriously injured by stray dogs," according to the statement.

The residents said that their village is infested by "hundreds of stray dogs who represent a danger for villagers," the statement added.

Recently attacks by stray dogs have been also reported in the southern coastal city of Tyre and municipal authorities have urged the police to take action.

Dogs are traditionally considered impure under Islamic law.