Dozens of members of Hezbollah have been seriously wounded in Lebanon and Syria after pagers used to communicate exploded.
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.
In a statement, the militant group confirmed that a girl and two men were killed in the blast.
Lebanon’s health minister Firass Abiad later said that five more people have died. At least 200 others remain in critical condition.
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, is among injured by the explosion, Iran’s Mehr news agency reported.
Local media reported that he has been hospitalised with injuries that are not life-threatening in the aftermath of the explosion.
‘Amani has a superficial injury and is currently under observation in a hospital,’ Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported.’
Lebanon’s Health Ministry has called on hospitals to be on maximum alert for all the casualties they are expected to receive.
It also urged its citizens to dispose of pagers immediately amid the coordinated attack.
CCTV footage circulating on social media shows some of the blasts – at the till of a supermarket and on the street.
In one harrowing video from a fruit and vegetables market, the backpack of a man is seen blowing up as shoppers flee for their lives.
In the moments after the blast, he is seen laying on the floor motionless as a man is seen leaning over to check on him.
Ambulances have been deployed to the sites of explosions across the southern suburbs of Beirut to help those injured.
It is understood that victims have been hospitalised with various injuries – from a number of fingers blown off, hands ruptures, and wounds to their eye sockets.
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 Lebanon, Hassan Wazni, said that around 40 wounded people were being treated at his facility.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese Red Cross said that more than 50 ambulances and 300 emergency medical staff were dispatched to assist in the evacuation of victims.
The wave of explosions lasted around an hour after the initial detonations, which took place about 3.45pm local time.
It was not immediately clear how the devices were detonated, but a number of theories have been getting traction online.
Former NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden reacted to the news: ‘Regarding the reports of beepers being remotely detonated in Beirut today, I genuinely hope it is a supply-chain attack. Because the alternative is simply unthinkable.’
The attack has been widely attributed to a hacking operation of Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has said it will not be commenting on the reported explosions in Lebanon.
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