Bulgaria to Investigate Company Links to Pagers That Exploded in Lebanon

(Patria) - Bulgaria will investigate a company linked to the sale of pagers to the Lebanese group Hezbollah that exploded this week in a coordinated attack, the state security agency said on Thursday, Reuters reported.

Bulgaria's State Agency for National Security (DANS) said in a statement that it is cooperating with the interior ministry in investigating the role of a company registered in Bulgaria, without naming it.

Reports in Bulgarian media indicate that the company Norta Global Ltd from Sofia facilitated the sale of pagers that exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday, killing eleven people and wounding 4,000.

Officials of Norta did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. A lawyer who registered the company in a residential building in Sofia did not answer Reuters questions. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format consistent with pagers made by Taiwan's Gold Apollo. Gold Apollo said on Wednesday that the pagers were made by Budapest-based BAC Consulting.

Hungarian media outlet Telex reported that the sale was actually facilitated by Norta, citing sources. Bulgaria's state security agency said it had not discovered any shipment of the suspected pagers on Bulgarian territory.