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One person injured in bomb blast in downtown Warsaw
WARSAW, Poland - A bomb hidden in a briefcase went off in a building in a downtown Warsaw business district Wednesday, shattering windows and injuring one person in what authorities suspect was a gangland-style act of vengeance.
The bomb exploded at around 1 p.m. on a floor in a modern glass and stone building used by Kolmex, a Polish company that provides services and products to railway companies.
Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, and the motive was unclear.
``We suspect that it wasn't terrorism, but rather a settling of accounts,'' police spokesman Mariusz Sokolowski said.
Poland, a staunch supporter of the U.S.-war on Iraq and now the commander of the multinational force in the country, was threatened with reprisal attacks in July in an online statement from a group calling itself Tawhid Islamic Group.
Kolmex appeared to be the target of a separate attack Wednesday, when a bomb went off at a vacation home belonging to company owners, Polish news agency PAP reported. Police confirmed they responded at 2:40 p.m. to the attack on the house, near the eastern Polish city of Lublin, but would not say who owns it.
Bomb attacks are rare in Poland, and those that do occur are usually associated with organized crime gang struggles, said police spokesman Marcin Szyndler.
``I actually think this is the first time someone placed a bomb in an office building, in the center of Warsaw, in broad daylight,'' Szyndler said.
Piotr Cichowlas, 27, a cook in a bar across the street, had just pulled up for work when he heard the explosion. ``My first thought was that this was a bomb attack,'' Cichowlas said. ``With all the terrorist attacks happening in the world, you can't expect much else.''
Though the only damage visible outside were some broken windows, the force of the bomb shattered walls inside and scattered debris across the floor, said Witold Labajczyk, a spokesman for Warsaw firefighters.
People were removed from the building and from two buildings across the street, and the injured man was taken to a hospital with bruises, authorities said.
(Source: http://news.bostonherald.com/international/view.bg?articleid=46585) |
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