Eight killed, nearly 3,000 injured as pagers explode across Lebanon

Eight people were killed and almost 2,750 wounded - 200 of them critically - in a spree of simultaneous detonations of pagers across Lebanon, Health Minister Firass Abiad said on Tuesday.

Those affected by the explosions include Hezbollah fighters and medics. The pagers exploded in southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut known as Dahiyeh and the eastern Bekaa Valley - all Hezbollah strongholds.

The wave of explosions lasted around an hour after the initial detonations, which took place about 3:45 p.m. local time (1345 GMT). It was not immediately clear how the devices were detonated. The pagers that detonated were the latest model brought in by Hezbollah in recent months, three security sources said.

Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary condemned the late afternoon detonations, terming it "Israeli aggression."

Without commenting directly on the explosions in Lebanon, an Israeli military spokesman said the chief of staff, Major General Herzi Halevi, met with senior officers on Tuesday evening to assess the situation. No policy change was announced but "vigilance must continue to be maintained", he said. Earlier on Tuesday, Israel's domestic security agency said it had foiled a plot by Hezbollah to assassinate a former senior defence official in the coming days.

Scenes of chaos followed the wave of explosions.Reuters

Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, suffered a "superficial injury" in Tuesday's pager blasts and was under observation in hospital, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency said. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.

A Reuters journalist saw ambulances rushing through the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, amid widespread panic. A security source said that devices were also exploding in the south of Lebanon.

At Mt. Lebanon hospital, a Reuters reporter saw motorcycles rushing to the emergency room, where people with their hands bloodied were screaming in pain.

The head of the Nabatieh public hospital in the south of the country, Hassan Wazni, told Reuters that around 40 wounded people were being treated at his facility. The wounds included injuries to the face, eyes and limbs.

Groups of people huddled at the entrance of buildings to check on people they knew who may have been wounded, the Reuters journalist said.

Regional broadcasters carrying CCTV footage which showed what appeared to be a small handheld device placed next to a grocery store cashier where an individual was paying spontaneously exploding.

In other footage, an explosion appeared to knock out someone standing at a fruit stand at a market area.

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Lebanon’s crisis operations center, which is run by the health ministry, asked all medical workers to head to their respective hospitals to help cope with the massive numbers of wounded coming in for urgent care. It said health care workers should not use pagers.

The Lebanese Red Cross said more than 50 ambulances and 300 emergency medical staff were dispatched to help in the evacuation of victims.

The U.S. State Department said it was too early to say how the pager attacks in Lebanon might impact efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza.