30 PEOPLE HURT IN POWERFUL BLAST IN WEST MOSTAR

MOSTAR, Sept 19 (Hina) - A strong explosive device went off near the police headquarters in western Mostar at 11.40 pm Thursday, the Herzegovina-Neretva cantonal interior ministry said in a statement on Friday morning. In the blast 30 people sustained either light or serious injuries, and one of those seriously wounded was immediately transported by a SFOR armoured carrier to a Split hospital, Croatia, Mostar hospital said. According to the ministry's statement, perpetrators of the explosion that happened near a block of flats, the Mostar police headquarters, and a building where a former interior ministry of (Croat) Herzeg-Bosnia had been situated, are still unknown. The police also do not know how the blast was caused. People who were hurt in the blast, were in flats or were moving near the spot of the explosion when the device went off. The cantonal interior ministry said that three security guards of the police headquarters were seriously injured. At the moment it is impossible to assess extensive material damage caused by the blast. Some flats in the building where the explosive device was set, were totally damaged, and windows in nearby buildings were smashed. About thirty (30) cars in the vicinity were either burnt down or badly damaged. An investigation into this very sizeable explosion is under way, and reports on its results can be expected on Friday morning. The explosion shook the entire southern city and made a smoke- screen. According to eye-witnesses, it created a more than a metre- large crater. According to unofficial reports, the blast was caused by a car-bomb. Two storeys of the building outside which the device exploded were completely destroyed. A doctor at Mostar hospital, Zoran Antunovic, has said that SFOR has offered help in medicines, blood transfusion, expert teams and transport of seriously hurt people. The doctor has added that three children, including a one-month-old baby, were among the injured. (hina) mš 191006 MET sep 97