12 killed and 2,750-2,800 hurt in pager blasts, Abiad says

Caretaker Health Minister Firass Abiad said Wednesday that 12 people were killed after paging devices used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon a day earlier, adding that some wounded were treated in Syria.

"After checking with all the hospitals," the toll was revised to 12 dead, Abiad told a news conference, putting the number of wounded between 2,750 and 2,800.

The dead included a girl and a boy as well as four health workers from private hospitals in Beirut's southern suburbs, he said.

Abiad said that "the attack was very big" with about 2,800 wounded people pouring into Lebanese hospitals "within half an hour."

Some cases in the Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley "were transferred to Syria," while "other cases will be evacuated to Iran," he added.

Hundreds of the wireless devices exploded simultaneously across Lebanon on Tuesday, hours after Israel said it was broadening the aims of the Gaza war to include its fight against Hamas ally Hezbollah.

Israel has yet to comment on the unprecedented attacks.

The pagers mainly went off in Hezbollah's strongholds of southern Beirut and Lebanon's east and south.

About 750 wounded people were in the south, about 150 were in the Bekaa Valley and some 1,850 were in Beirut and its southern suburbs, he said.

"A little less than 300 patients are in critical condition" with some suffering from face injuries and brain haemorrhaging, Abiad said.

"The wounded who arrived at the emergency room were not all young men. We saw children and elderly people," Abiad said.