Smoke rising from new wave of explosions on Beirut skyline

Timelapse video from Beirut’s skyline shows smoke rising from various spots on Wednesday (September 18) as hundreds of people were wounded in fresh blasts involving communication devices used by Lebanon’s Hezbollah group. A security source who confirmed the blasts said many of the wounds were to the stomach and hands, the source said. Lebanon’s health ministry said the initial casualty toll was one person killed and more than 100 injured. Earlier the state news agency said three people had died. At least one of the blasts took place near a funeral organised by Iran-backed Hezbollah for those killed the previous day when thousands of pagers used by the group exploded across the country and wounded many of its fighters. A Reuters reporter in the southern suburbs of Beirut said he saw Hezbollah members frantically taking out the batteries of any walkie-talkies on them that had not exploded, tossing the parts in metal barrels around them. (Production: Gerardo Gomez)