Explosion in Austrian Discotheque Wounds 20, Four Seriously

New York Times ^ | 7/27/02 | AP

[kattracks]

LINZ, Austria (AP) -- An explosion rocked a discotheque in the western Austrian city of Linz early Saturday, and police said they found remnants of a hand grenade at the scene. Twenty people were wounded, four seriously.

The explosion occurred at about 3:20 a.m. (9:20 p.m. EDT) at the X-Large Disco in Linz, about 120 miles west of Vienna, the Austria Press Agency reported. Bits of a grenade were found not far from the disc jockey's booth, the reports said.

The wounded were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment of shrapnel wounds, Austrian radio said.

[goodieD]

Does anyone else notice that overseas discoteques are not the safest places to be? I'm just curious how many people have been killed in disco fires and explosions in the last 15 years?

[seeker41]

Authorities said the disco is adjoined by a small restaurant frequented by young Serbian and Croatian immigrants. The disco is in a western part of the city known locally as "Little Munich."

[monkeyshine]

Let me be the first to say "this is just an isolated incident".

[opticoax]

Austria celebrates diversity.

Look for a Haider/Waldheim ticket in the fall elections.

[FlyVet]

Let me be the first to say "this is just an isolated incident".

Yes, I'm sure nothing to do with Islamic Extremism. Just move along, move along...

[ChicagoRepublican]

Hmmmmm...

Any chance Bosnian Muslims were behind this grenade attack. I know a lot of Bosnians made their way into Austria and Germany during the 90's.

[what's up]

Wouldn't wish a big terrorist attack on anyone, but I'm hoping that if one happens it takes place in Paris.

There's nothing that would change the EU's mind faster than a deadly terrorist attack on their own soil.

[seeker41]

More from same AP article

Hand grenades are easily obtained by gangs and other criminals in Western Europe. Authorities say many of the grenades originate in the Balkans, left over from the wars that followed the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

[Jeremy_Reaban]

Well, they tend to be packed with people. (If they're not, they tend to go out of business). I guess they're hard for terrorists to resist.

[Travis McGee]

Grenades are cheap and available in Europe since the end of the cold war, the Balkan wars etc.

A grenade in a disco can also be the local Mafia's warning to the other clubs to "pay for protection or else".

[applemac_g4]

While anything is possible, I would be surprised if Moslems were behind this attack. Doing something in Austria only would serve as a distraction from their favorite pasttime - killing Jews, Americans, and Indians.

[seeker41]

When I traveled through Brussels last summer the airport was full of muslims, made me nervous. I was going to board an EL AL flight to Tel Aviv and security surrounded us at the gate with hands on side arms. It was for our protection but was quite bizarre as I had not thought of people in airports shooting up passengers.

[American in Israel]

Last year all of Europe fell over itself to side with the Palestinians and the Islamic Jihad against Israel.

This year the seed is fruiting. "What you sow, so shall ye reap".

[Greg Weston]

Wasn't Adolf Hitler born in Linz??

[Labyrinthos]

There's nothing that would change the EU's mind faster than a deadly terrorist attack on their own soil.

Yeah, right. The Eurosnots will only hate US more because as every liberal anti-semitic Eurosnot knows, we Americans are responsible for every act of terrorism throughout the world due to our support of the only democracy in the Middle East.

[Guillermo]

Anschluss

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Does anyone else notice that overseas discoteques are not the safest places to be?

I thought disco died with Austin Powers, Baby. Maybe someone just took "Death before disco" too seriously.

[JMK]

No, Hitler was born in Braunau, if I remember correctly. Arnold Schwarzenegger was born in Linz.

[blam]

"Doing something in Austria only would serve as a distraction from their favorite pasttime - killing Jews, Americans, and Indians."

In Pakistan, they also like to stake a bear in the middle of an arena, loose some dogs, then everyone cheers as the bear is ripped to shreads by the dogs. Sick bastards!