[ad_1]
Sky News’ Data and Forensics team has spoken to four experts to answer the question – how does a pager or hand-held radio explode?
The pagers that exploded in Lebanon on Tuesday are consistent with the AR-924 model of pager with Gold Apollo branding.
The Taiwan-based company has distanced itself from the devices, saying they were made under licence in Budapest by a firm called BAC Consulting.
The chief executive of BAC Consulting, Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, told NBC News, Sky News’ US partner: “I don’t make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong.”
Meanwhile, Icom, the Japanese maker of the brand of walkie-talkies linked to the deadly blasts, has said it stopped making the model a decade ago and it would be impossible to lace them with explosives during manufacturing.
Read more: The Budapest firm linked to explosive pagers
So while it might not be clear at what stage the pagers or radios could have been turned into bombs, experts can say how it might have been done.
First, let’s look at the explosive – you only need a very small amount, a gram or two is enough to “explode someone’s arm or face”, says Dr Eyal Pinko, a former Israeli navy and intelligence operative.
It is not yet clear exactly what type of explosive was used. There have been unverified reports pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN, was used. Experts told Sky News it also could have been TNT or another equivalent.
“The point is that you can mix them in with another component effectively to make a plastic explosive,” Andrea Sella, professor of chemistry at University College London, says.
“So that means that you could conceivably insert some of this stuff into the nooks and crannies [of a pager].”
The explosives could have been in the battery, inside a detonating device or hidden elsewhere in the pager, Dr Pinko…
[ad_2]
