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29 March 2024

Bomb injures at least 7 at Chilean subway station

A police explosives expert inspects a garbage container while working near a blast site at a subway station in Santiago, Chile, Monday Sept. 8, 2014. A bomb exploded in the Chilean subway station injuring at least seven people, the most damaging in a string of bombs planted around the country's capital this year. (AP)

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By AP

A bomb exploded next to a Chilean subway station on Monday, injuring at least seven people, the most damaging of more than two dozen explosive devices planted around the country's capital this year.

The blast took place at lunchtime at a fast-food restaurant in a small, underground shopping mall connected to the Escuela Militar subway station in Santiago's affluent Las Conde neighborhood.

The injuries apparently were caused by fragments from a fire extinguisher filled with gunpowder that detonated in a trash bin, said fire department Commander Ivo Zuvic Garcia.

Among those hurt in the blast was a cleaning woman who lost a finger, said Dr. Fernando Zapata of the government's emergency medical service. He said nine people were hurt, but other officials put the figure at seven.

Anti-riot police, firefighters and bomb squad officers swarmed across the station, which was closed briefly after the blast.

At least 28 bombs have been found across Santiago so far this year — most planted at banks and police stations late at night. Some have not exploded and none of the other bombs before this one caused any injuries.

No one claimed responsibility for Monday's attack, but in some previous cases anarchist groups have done so. Sometimes they have demanded freedom for two Chilean anarchists imprisoned in Spain for an explosion in a cathedral in Zaragoza last year.

The bombing "has all the characteristics of a terrorist act that has been carried out to cause harm to innocent persons," government spokesman Alvaro Elizalde said.

He said the government would invoke an anti-terror law enacted during the 1973-90 dictatorship that allows for lengthy periods of pre-trial detention, longer sentences, interception of communications and masked witnesses.

Deputy Interior Secretariat Mahmud Aleuy said two suspects believed to have planted the explosive device escaped in a car.

The latest blast occurred near the country's top military academy. It comes three days before the 41st anniversary of the Chilean military coup that ousted socialist President Salvador Allende and began the brutal dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Chileans remain divided over Pinochet's 17-year rule, and violent protests and clashes with police often coincide with the coup's anniversary.

The subway was operating normally and the Escuela Militar station partly re-opened about an hour after the blast. A bomb was planted at another subway station in Santiago earlier this year causing material damage but no injuries.

President Michelle Bachelet was expected to meet this afternoon with her security advisers and visit the injured.