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Hungarian BAC company denies involvement in pager blasts in Lebanon — media

BAC Consulting has blocked access to its website following claims by Gold Apollo, the Hungarian Telex website reported

NEW YORK, September 18. /TASS/. The Budapest-based BAC Consulting has dismissed claims of its involvement in the production of pagers that allegedly could have been supplied to Lebanon, the company's CEO Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono said.

"I don’t make the pagers. I am just the intermediary. I think you got it wrong," she told NBC News in a commentary. Meanwhile, the CEO confirmed that she had worked with the Taiwanese Gold Apollo pager manufacturer.

Earlier, Gold Apollo officials said that the devices that exploded in Lebanon had been designed and manufactured by the Hungarian BAC Consulting KFT company, which is licensed to use the Taiwanese label.

BAC Consulting has blocked access to its website following claims by Gold Apollo, the Hungarian Telex website reported.

Reuters said that Israel’s intelligence service, Mossad, may have planted 5,000 pagers ordered by the Shiite Hezbollah movement from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. However, the company's chairman, Xu Qingguang, stated that Gold Apollo did not manufacture the devices that exploded in Lebanon.

On September 17, many pagers exploded almost simultaneously in different parts of Lebanon. According to the country’s Health Ministry, there have been fatalities and a large number of injured. The Shiite movement Hezbollah blamed the explosions on Israel and promised a "just response." According to one version, the incident was a result of a cyberattack. The pagers were reportedly brought to Lebanon for Hezbollah supporters in the spring of this year with explosive devices already embedded in them.