The good news is that no one was killed, the bad news, 7 people possibly ten were injured when a bomb blast through a restaurant next to a subway station. The really bad news is that there have been over 28 bomb explosions in Chile this year alone. I had always thought about what Chile offered that Panama did not and I am glad that I did not consider moving there. More from the Wall Street Journal.
A forensic expert, in white, arrives at the Santiago subway station where a bomb exploded on Monday. Associated Press
A bomb exploded at a subway station in the Chilean capital, Santiago, on Monday, injuring at least seven people, government officials said.
Chile’s government called the explosion a terrorist attack without naming anyone responsible for setting off the bomb, which had been planted in a garbage can in a fast-food restaurant in the station.
Foreign governments have recently warned visitors to Chile that anti-government protesters and anarchist groups have been placing explosive devices at automated-teller machines and in other locations.
Authorities varied in their estimates of the number of those injured in the explosion, with the government’s lead investigator putting the number as high as 10 people.
“It was an abominable act, and we will apply the full weight of the law, including anti terrorist laws,” President Michelle Bachelet told reporters after visiting victims in a clinic. “What happened today was horrible, but Chile is and will remain a stable nation.”
A number of bombs have been placed across Santiago this year, although not all have exploded, according to media reports.
Many of the bombs have been placed anonymously, although some anarchist groups have claimed to have placed some of them. The bomb on Monday stood out, though, for the larger number of people it injured.
Government prosecutor Francisco Bravo was quoted by Chilean newspaper La Tercera as saying the bomb was a fire extinguisher loaded with gunpowder, which could be set off from a distance—similar to other bombs placed earlier this year in Chile. Authorities said they believed two suspects had escaped in a car.
Monday’s bomb took place just three days before the 41st anniversary of the military coup that removed the government of socialist President Salvador Allende. The runup to the coup anniversary has in the past been marked by social unrest.
“The government won’t rest until these people are apprehended,” Interior Minister Rodrigo Peñailillo said.
A police officer with a sniffer dog at work outside the Escuela Militar subway station, where the explosion took place, on Monday. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
The explosion on Monday shocked many Chileans who are used to living in what has been in recent years a relative calm and rapidly developing nation in the southern cone of South America.
Francisco de la Maza, the mayor of Santiago’s Las Condes district, said the perpetrators were anarchists. “They are doing acts of terrorism to intimidate the population. We can’t allow ourselves to be intimidated,” he said on Radio ADN. “Their only intention was to hurt innocent people.”
Reports said one victim had to have part of a hand amputated. Others suffered hearing damage. Images from Chilean media showed the underground station covered in smoke shortly after the explosion and paramedics wheeling the injured out on stretchers.