At least nine people are dead and thousands injured after pagers held by Hezbollah fighters exploded simultaneously across Lebanon in extraordinary scenes that have been likened to a spy movie.

There was chaos across the nation when the handheld pagers detonated in public locations like shops in a one-hour period on Tuesday (local time).

Ambulances rushed patients to overwhelmed hospitals, with Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad saying 2750 people were injured and 200 of the victims were critical.

The BBC reports that many casualties had lost fingers, in some cases all of them.

CCTV from inside one supermarket shows shoppers screaming and ducking for cover when a pager inside a man’s pocket explodes in the fruit and vegetable section.

The victim, who had been filling a bag with produce, can be heard moaning on the ground as a shop attendant hovers over him to check his condition.

In other footage, a bag explodes on the counter of a grocery store.

A young girl – the daughter of a Hezbollah member – was reported among the dead from a pager explosion in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, the AFP news agency said.

A pager explosion at a grocery store counter. Photo: X

Hezbollah reportedly uses “low-tech” pagers to communicate after ditching mobile phones to evade detection. This batch was said to be a new shipment.

Hezbollah blamed Israel for the pager blasts and said it would receive “its fair punishment”.

Lebanon’s information minister Ziad Makary said the government condemned the detonation of the pagers as an “Israeli aggression”.

The Israeli military declined to comment on Reuters inquiries about the detonations. There was no word from the Israeli government.

A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the detonation of the pagers was the “biggest security breach” of the group in nearly a year of conflict with Israel.

Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the Gaza war erupted last October, in the worst such escalation in years.

Hezbollah confirmed in a statement the deaths of at least three people, including two of its fighters.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was not hurt in the explosions, the group said.

The wave of explosions lasted about an hour after the initial detonations, which happened about 3.45pm local time.

It was not immediately clear how the devices were detonated. The BBC quoted a munitions expert who said the devices were likely packed with up to 20 grams of military-grade explosive.

Ambulances rush patients to hospitals across Lebanon. Photo: Getty

The Lebanese foreign ministry described the explosions as a “dangerous and deliberate Israeli escalation”, which it said had been “accompanied by Israeli threats to expand the war towards Lebanon on a large scale”.

Lebanese internal security forces said wireless communication devices were detonated across the country, especially in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.

The pagers that detonated were the latest model brought in by Hezbollah in recent months, three security sources said.

Many of those hurt included Hezbollah fighters who are the sons of top officials from the armed group, two security sources told Reuters.

One of the fighters killed was the son of a Hezbollah member of the Lebanese parliament, Ali Ammar, they said

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, suffered a “superficial injury” in a pager explosion and was under observation in hospital, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.

After Tuesday’s blasts, a Reuters journalist saw ambulances rushing through the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, amid widespread panic.

At Mount Lebanon hospital, another reporter saw motorcycles rushing to the emergency room, where people with bloodied hands were screaming in pain.

A security source said devices were also exploding in Lebanon’s south.

The head of the Nabatieh public hospital in the south of the country, Hassan Wazni, told Reuters that about 40 wounded people were being treated. Wounds included injuries to the face, eyes and limbs.

Groups of people huddled at the entrance of buildings to check on people they knew who may have been wounded, the Reuters journalist said.

Regional broadcasters carrying CCTV footage that showed what appeared to be a small handheld device next to a grocery store cashier spontaneously exploding as a shopper paid.

In other footage, an explosion appeared to knock out someone standing at a fruit stand in a market.

Lebanon’s crisis operations centre, which is run by the health ministry, asked all medical workers to head to their respective hospitals to help cope with the massive numbers of wounded coming in for urgent care. It said health care workers should not use pagers.

The health ministry called on all hospitals to be on alert for emergency patients.

The Lebanese Red Cross said more than 50 ambulances and 300 emergency medical staff were dispatched to help victims.

-with AAP/AP