Beirut: Hundreds of members of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, including fighters and medics, were seriously wounded on Tuesday when the pagers they use to communicate exploded, a security source told Reuters.
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.
A Reuters journalist saw ambulances rushing through the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut amid widespread panic. Residents said explosions were taking place even 30 minutes after the initial blasts.
Groups of people huddled at the entrance of buildings to check on people they knew who may have been wounded, the Reuters journalist said.
The security source added that devices were also exploding in the south of Lebanon.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has been exchanging fire with Hezbollah since last October in parallel with the Gaza war.
(Reporting by Laila Bassam; Writing by Nadine Awadalla and Clauda Tanios; Editing by Kevin Liffey)