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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
William Christou in Beirut

‘Sophisticated evil’: Beirut medics and civilians horrified by pager attacks

An ambulance is driven in as people gather outside the American University hospital in Beirut on Tuesday after the arrival of patients injured by pager explosions
People gather outside the American University hospital in Beirut on Tuesday. Photograph: Bassam Masri/AP

Two beeps and a pause was the only warning Yusuf got. He turned around to face the noise, thinking it was one of his medical instruments, but instead was met with an explosion, throwing shrapnel into his leg. His patient fared much worse.

“The patient lost consciousness; he started bleeding. His face, neck and lips were burned. He had knife-like cuts, as if he was hit by a rocket,” Yusuf, a doctor from Beirut speaking under a pseudonym, said while waiting for an injured friend outside a Beirut hospital on Tuesday night. He rolled up his trouser leg to show a small wound, the remnants of his patient’s exploded pager.

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