Bomb blast brings terror to Chilean capital

A homemade bomb exploded on Monday next to a subway station in Chile's capital, Santiago, injuring 10 people, officials said.

The explosion occurred at lunchtime near a fast-food restaurant in an underground shopping mall, meters away from the Military Academy subway station.

"An explosive device was placed inside the trash can in the passageways of the gallery," said Pedro Berrios from the city's Emergency Network.

El Mercurio, a daily newspaper, said, "Investigative sources confirmed the explosive was a fire extinguisher (filled) with gunpowder that went off inside a trash can near one of the food locales."

Officials "evacuated everyone at the station and throughout the gallery," according to Berrios.

One of the injured lost "fingers on the right hand," said Fernando Zapata from city's Salvador Hospital.

"It was a terrorist act (and) it requires that the country take decisive action. We will invoke the Anti-Terrorist Law," Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo told reporters.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said, "It is an abominable act, and we are going to bring the full weight of the law to bear, even invoking the Anti-Terrorist Law.

"The country is horrified by what happened," Bachelet told reporters before visiting the injured at the city's Las Condes Clinic, adding that the law will be reviewed in the wake of the incident.

Deputy Interior Minister Mahmud Aleuy, meanwhile, said authorities "have identified the getaway car" in which the perpetrators fled.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast, which occurred just days before the anniversary of the Sept 11, 1973, military coup that brought dictator General Augusto Pinochet to power.

Chileans have been shocked by at least 29 bomb attacks so far this year, with no one injured.

(China Daily 09/10/2014 page10)