Nine killed and thousands injured in Lebanon by exploding pagers
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 17 September 2024
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nine people have been killed and thousands injured in Lebanon by exploding pagers, the sort used by the militant group Hezbollah. We hear from the Lebanese government.
In the rest of a special programme live from Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland in the US: as Oregon ends a four- year experiment decriminalising the possession of hard drugs – how can opioid addiction be tackled in the state? And with inflation the number one issue going into November’s US presidential election, we take the economic temperature of Oregon’s famous craft-brewing industry.
(IMAGE: Lebanese soldiers and Hezbollah members gather outside the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) after an incident involving Hezbollah members' wireless devices in Beirut, Lebanon, 17 September 2024 / CREDIT: Wael Hamzeh/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to the BBC World Service. |
| 0:06.0 | Hello and welcome to News Hour, which today is coming live from the studios of our friends and partners at Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland in |
| 0:15.1 | America's Pacific Northwest. Of course we have lots of good stuff from here |
| 0:19.9 | throughout the program but we are going to start a long long way from Portland in |
| 0:24.3 | Lebanon and the extraordinary news that several people have been killed and |
| 0:28.6 | thousands more injured after handheld pages the sort of communication devices used by the |
| 0:34.7 | militant group Hezbollah suddenly exploded leading to some shocking scenes. means. |
| 0:43.0 | I want to get a picture of how the day has unfolded. |
| 0:48.0 | I've been speaking to Lebanon's health minister, Dr Ferras Abiyad. |
| 0:57.0 | This all started at half-past three this afternoon when a large number of patients started presenting to our hospitals |
| 1:04.6 | with it complained that their pager or communication device exploded. |
| 1:08.8 | And this has resulted in what we are now reporting around 2,800 casualties, including 200 |
| 1:16.4 | casualties that are in critical conditions and up till now we are reporting nine |
| 1:21.0 | deaths including an eight-year-old child. And what sort of injuries to those |
| 1:26.0 | who were wounded have? So most of the injuries appear to be to the face, especially to the eyes, |
| 1:31.9 | and also to the hand with some amputations, |
| 1:34.6 | whether it's in the hand or finger amputations. |
| 1:37.4 | And some of them have injuries to their flank. |
| 1:40.3 | And can you tell us, are all those who have been injured? |
| 1:44.4 | Are they all members of the militant group Hezbollah or of civilians being injured too? |
| 1:50.4 | Well, we're seeing all kinds of people, to be honest. |
| 1:54.0 | And as you know, the vast majority of people who are presenting to the emergency rooms are in |
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