UPDATE - 9 killed, 300 injured in new explosions of wireless communication devices in Lebanon

UPDATES WITH NEW DEATH TOLL, MIKATI’S STATEMENT, BACKGROUND INFO

By Wassim Seifeddine

BEIRUT (AA) - A new wave of wireless communications device explosions across Lebanon on Wednesday killed at least nine people and injured more than 300 others, the country's Health Ministry said.

This is the second consecutive day of such incidents, which have killed 21 others and injured over 3,000 people so far.

The ministry said in a statement on its website that nine people were killed and 300 others received injuries in a fresh series of explosions in the country.

Lebanese Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati assured the public that the second wave of wireless device explosions in Lebanon has ended and that no new injured people have been admitted to hospitals.

Mikati provided this update during his visit to the Ministry of Health to monitor the latest developments related to the explosions of pagers.

Earlier, Lebanon's official National News Agency reported that three people were killed in explosions in the town of Sohmor, southern Lebanon.

The news agency said wireless radios also exploded in the hands of users in Lebanon's southern city of Tyre.

According to an Anadolu correspondent, explosions were heard in southern Beirut and several southern towns, resulting in fires that engulfed cars and residential apartments.

Earlier on Wednesday, Health Minister Firas Alabiad announced that the death toll from Tuesday's pager explosions in Lebanon had risen to 12, including two children.

“The number of injured people ranges between 2,750 and 2,800, with around 300 reported as critical,” Alabiad added at a press conference in Beirut.

The new wave of explosions came amid an exchange of cross-border attacks between Hezbollah and Israel against the backdrop of a brutal Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip which has killed nearly 41,300 people, mostly women and children, following a cross-border attack on Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul