Just as crowds had gathered to mourn some of those killed in Tuesday’s wave of pager-bomb attacks, an explosion sparked chaos in Dahiyeh, Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut.
In the surrounding area there was bedlam as the sound of the explosion echoed through the streets. The chants stopped. Those gathered looked at each other, some incredulous.
As reports spread that this was part of a second wave of explosions now targeting walkie-talkies, no electronic equipment was considered safe.
In Dahiyeh, Hezbollah supporters stopped our team several times, demanding we did not use our phones or our camera.
One of our producers received a message from a friend, who said she had changed her Lebanese SIM card to an international number, concerned that her phone could explode, too.
Many people here, and across the country, are inevitably wondering what will come next. Some even say they do not know if it is safe to walk next to other people, and are changing their plans.
"Everyone is just panicking… We don’t know if we can stay next to our laptops, our phones. Everything seems like a danger at this point, and no one knows what to do,” one woman, Ghida, said.
The confusion was made worse by rumours that spread on social media. One of them suggested that even solar panels were blowing up. "A state of panic overwhelmed people,” another woman said. “And frankly, this situation is very frightening”.
Wednesday’s attack, which killed 25 people, came as the country was still shocked and angered by what happened the day before, when thousands of pagers exploded in a synchronised attack, after users received a message they believed had come from Hezbollah.