Bulgaria to probe company links to pagers that exploded in Lebanon
Adds media reports naming company, no immediate confirmation, no comment from company, paragraphs 4-7
SOFIA, Sept 19 (Reuters) -Bulgaria will investigate a company linked to the sale of pagers to Lebanon's militant group Hezbollah that exploded this week in a coordinated attack, the state security agency said on Thursday.
Bulgaria's state security agency, DANS, said in a statement that it is working with the interior ministry to probe the role of a company registered in Bulgaria, without naming it.
Bulgarian media reports allege that a Sofia-based company called Norta Global Ltd had facilitated the sale of the pagers, which exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday, killing 11 people and wounding 4,000.
Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the link to Norta. Company officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A lawyer that registered the company at an apartment block in Sofia did not respond to Reuters questions.
Images of destroyed pagers analysed by Reuters showed a format consistent with pagers made by Taiwan Gold Apollo. Gold Apollo said on Wednesday that the pagers were made by Budapest-based BAC Consulting.
But Hungarian news site Telex reported that the sale was actually facilitated by Norta, citing sources.
The Bulgarian state security agency said that it did not detect any shipments of the suspected pagers on Bulgarian territory.
Reporting by Georgi Slavov; Writing by Edward McAllister; editing by Philippa Fletcher
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