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Journalists in southern Beirut heard at least two contained blasts in separate parts of the suburbs on Wednesday – 24 hours after thousands of pagers detonated in a coordinated attack across Lebanon.
Sources have told news agency AFP that walkie talkies were detonated in the city of Beirut, where Hezbollah has a stronghold, while security sources told the news agency Reuters that the devices were ‘hand-held’ radios, different to the pagers that exploded on Tuesday.
Security sources have also told Reuters that the hand-held radios were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, around the same time as the pagers.
Metro.co.uk has not verified these claims. Dozens are reportedly wounded.
At least one of the blasts heard took place at the beginning of a funeral procession organised by Hezbollah for those killed the previous day when thousands of pagers used by the group detonated across the country.
UN Chief António Guterres said the pager blasts have indicated a ‘serious risk of a dramatic escalation in Lebanon’.
Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine said the group is facing a ‘new phase’, and ‘punishment is certainly coming’.
Streets fell into chaos after the explosions yesterday (Picture: Reuters)
Blasts were reported at a funeral for the son of a Hezbollah member today (Picture: Reuters)
Blood spattered the streets after yesterday’s attacks (Picture: Shutterstock)
More than 2,750 people are reported to have been injured in southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut, and in the Syrian town of Set Zaynab, as the devices were simultaneously detonated yesterday.
Lebanon’s health minister Firass Abiad then said five more people died, with the son of Ali Ammar, Hezbollah member of the Lebanese parliament, confirmed to be one of those killed.
A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the detonation of the pagers was the ‘biggest security breach’ the group had been subjected to in nearly a year of war with Israel.
Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was among injured by the explosion, Iran’s Mehr news agency reported.
Elijah J Magnier, a a Brussels-based senior political risk analyst, said the pagers all vibrated and beeped for ten seconds, but when the user pressed the button to cancel the alert, they detonated.
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