Media reports say the Lebanon-based Shia Muslim group Hezbollah distributed pagers with explosives hidden inside to those related to the group early this year.

Hundreds of handheld pagers exploded across Lebanon almost simultaneously on Tuesday. The Lebanese health ministry says 12 people were killed and some 2,750 were wounded. Hezbollah announced two of its members died.

Hezbollah blamed Israel for the explosions, hinting at a retaliatory attack.

Reuters news agency quotes a senior Lebanese security source as saying Israel's Mossad intelligence agency planted explosives inside 5,000 pagers imported by Hezbollah months before Tuesday's detonations.

The Israeli government has issued no official comment so far.

Reuters and other media outlets say Hezbollah warned supporters in February not to carry mobile phones to ensure their safety amid a series of Israeli attacks targeting the group's fighters. The reports say the group instead distributed pagers to a range of its supporters from fighters to medics.

The representative of a Taiwanese company that reportedly produced the devices which exploded spoke to reporters in New Taipei City on Wednesday.

The representative said the pagers in question were not manufactured by the company but by another firm authorized to use the Taiwanese maker's brand. The Taiwanese company also issued a statement and revealed that a company in Hungary made the devices.

NHK's reporters visited the address of the Hungarian company's office in Budapest, and found a paper that had registered names of several entities patched up on a door of a two-story building. No persons who appear to be employees of the company were seen.

So far, details remain unclear on how the devices were brought into Lebanon.