What's going to explode next? The fridge? My phone? The scenes in Lebanon are from a horror film - fleshless faces, eyes hanging out. With dozens dead and thousands hurt, none can feel safe

Thousands of walkie-talkies, solar panels and fingerprint recognition devices used by Hezbollah fighters have detonated across Lebanon in the past two days, killing 14 and wounding hundreds of people including mourners at a funeral.

The second wave of carnage comes a day after thousands of exploding pagers used by the group left almost 3,000 people injured and a dozen dead.

Security sources confirmed that hand-held radios were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, at around the same time as compromised pagers. Lebanese media has also reported that home solar energy systems have blown up in several areas of Beirut.

The ensuing panic has caused terrified residents to tear the batteries from their walkie-talkies and throw devices into the street in fear of more explosions.

In a sign of the alarm caused by the devices, the Lebanese Armed Forces have been carrying out controlled explosions of suspicious items - including bags of rice suspected to be rigged with explosives in a pit of the parking lot at the American University of Beirut Medical Centre.

The attacks amount to the biggest security breach in Hezbollah's history.

Hezbollah fighters carry a coffin of one of the people who died in the pagers blasts, during the funeral procession in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon

Beirut's hospitals are reportedly still full following yesterday's attacks, as the already crippled country deals with the catastrophe.

So far, at least 20 people have died and over 450 people were injured by exploding walkie-talkies. Casualties are expected to rise overnight. Lebanon's health system is overwhelmed.

The compromised walkie-talkies were said to be part of Hezbollah’s emergency back-up communications system, in the event of their pagers not working.

Hezbollah has been left deeply embarrassed by the security failure. Sky News reported that 'thousands and thousands' of pagers are currently being destroyed by the terror group in the wake of the detonations.

A walkie-talkie that exploded inside a house, in Baalbek, east Lebanon

A fire breaking out in a car as a result of a device exploding in Lebanon

Beirut has collapsed into panic. The WhatsApp groups are going non-stop. There are wild rumours doing the rounds that solar panels might explode, batteries, fridges – anything. The army is even blowing up bags of rice imported from Thailand.

When the dreadful sound of the explosions of walkie-talkies and radios began, the women started crying.

I saw a paramedic stumbling out of an ambulance which was billowing smoke. He collapsed.

A man holds a walkie talkie device after he removed the battery

Dr Elias Warrak, an ophthalmologist at Mount Lebanon University Hospital in Beirut, told the BBC the past 24 hours there had been 'a nightmare', adding that more than 60 to 70 per cent of the patients being treated ended up with at least one eye removed.

People stand near a crater after Lebanese army soldiers blew up a communication device in the parking lot of the American University of Beirut Medical Centre

Home solar energy systems also exploded, along with fingerprint devices and radios.

A reporter in the southern suburbs of Beirut saw Hezbollah members frantically taking batteries out of any walkie-talkies that had not exploded, tossing the parts in metal barrels.

Walkie-talkie devices without batteries are shown at an electronic store, which the owner removed for safety reasons

A vendor shows walkie-talkie devices without batteries as he took them out

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13866291/panic-Beirut-Lebanon-hezbollah-pagers-army-explosions-basmati-rice-bags.html

A destroyed pager or paging device that exploded

Just one day after Hamas' October 7 attacks that triggered the war in Gaza, Lebanon's Hezbollah entered the fray in support of its ally.

Since then, hundreds of the group's operatives have been killed in Israeli strikes, including several senior commanders and a top Hamas official in Beirut.

Pagers have an extremely long battery life, with some models able to last up to three months on one charge.

Iran's ambassador 'lost an eye when his ''Hezbollah-issued pager'' exploded in his face'

Mojtaba Amani, the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, lost an eye when a pager exploded in his face

Scores of Hezbollah members were severely injured throughout southern Lebanon and in its capital Beirut

A partly damaged car after a walkie-talkie exploded inside it, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon

An ambulance carrying wounded, after multiple explosions were heard during the funeral of four Hezbollah fighters after their handheld pagers exploded, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon