Taiwanese pager manufacturer says the beepers that detonated were made by European licensee

Taiwan’s Gold Apollo didn’t make the pagers that were used in the detonations in Lebanon on Tuesday, the company’s founder Hsu Ching-Kuang tells reporters.

Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from the Taiwan-based Gold Apollo.

Hsu says the pagers used in the explosion were made by a company in Europe that has the right to use the Taiwanese firm’s brand.

“The product was not ours. It was only that it had our brand on it,” he says.

Hsu doesn’t name the company which he says manufactured the pagers, adding Gold Apollo is also a victim of the incident.

“We are a responsible company. This is very embarrassing,” he says.