Posted on 07/26/2002 11:47:51 PM PDT by 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.
Ausgleich
Saturday July 27, 11:55 PM
27 hurt by flying metal as grenade blast hits Austrian discotheque
Twenty-seven young people, mainly immigrants from former Yugoslavia, were injured by flying metal when a hand grenade exploded in an Austrian discotheque frequented by emigre Croats and Serbs.
Two were in serious condition in the city of Linz and altogether 11 were hospitalised, a police spokeswoman said Saturday. None had life-threatening injuries.
The blast "came from a grenade, it's almost certain," the spokeswoman said.
Doctors said many injured had small metal pellets in their bodies of a type found in certain types of weapons.
The blast occurred at around 3:00 am (0100 GMT) in the "X-Large" discotheque, popular with young members of the Serb and Croat immigrant communities in Linz, police said.
Victims were all aged between 17 and 22, most of them from former Yugoslavia.
Police did not rule out the possibility that the weapon was set off deliberately. "It could be a deliberate attack, but we aren't sure yet," said police spokesman Michael Tischlinger. "It could just be a stupid joke," one investigater told Austria's APA news agency. "We thought at first that it was an accident, but then we found traces of explosives," said the police spokeswoman. All who had been present were being interviewed.
At the time of the incident there were between 30 and 40 people in the discotheque, which was beginning to empty just ahead of closing time, she said.
A local investigator said the discotheque had a good reputation, and there had been no similar incidents in the past.
The more seriously injured people had internal injuries, said doctors at one of three hospitals to which casualties were taken.
Austrian interior ministry explosives experts travelled in Linz, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Vienna just south of the country's border with the Czech Republic, to investigate.
Many Austrian cities have immigrant communities from former Yugoslav republics, or from present-day Yugoslavia comprising Serbia and Montenegro.
Before former Yugoslavia fell apart during 1990s wars, it bordered Austria to the south. Today the country has a border with Slovenia, the northernmost of the former Yugoslav republics.
The explosion is the latest in a series in which discotheques have been targeted.
Five people were injured last month when a home-made epxlosive device went off in a discotheque in the Indonesian capital Jakarta. Two other devices were defused. Police suspect Islamic radicals.
In May, 16 young Israelis died in a discotheque when a suicide bomber set off a device in a billiards club at Rishon le Zion, south of Tel Aviv. The radical Islamic group Hamas claimed responsibility.
In September last year a bomb caused considerable damage but no injuries in a discotheque in Lacunza in northern Spain. Police suspect the armed Basque separatist ETA.
In June last year 21 mainly young people died and 75 were injured by a suicide bomb in a discotheque in Tel Aviv. Hamas claimed responsibility.
In April 2000 nine people were injured when a hand grenade went off in a discotheque in Hamburg, Germany.
In the same month in the town of Bonifacio, the biggest discotheque on the French island of Corsica was almost entirely destroyed by a bomb.
In April 1986 an explosion destroyed a West Berlin discotheque frequented by US military personnel. Two American soldiers and a Turk died, and 260 people were injured.
07/28/2002
LINZ, Austria - A hand grenade blast sprayed tiny metal pellets and shrapnel through a discotheque filled with young Balkan immigrants Saturday, injuring 27 people, two seriously, police said.
The explosion ripped through the X-Large Disco in Linz, about 120 miles west of Vienna, at 3:20 a.m., leaving patrons most age 15 to 19 with steel balls embedded in their skin and bodies, a doctor said.
Experts said the grenade which was packed with thousands of .12-inch steel balls was designed to injure, not kill. Grenades like it are readily available on the black market in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, they said.
"There was a flash in the DJ area on the dance floor, followed by a terrible explosion," said police spokesman Michael Tischlinger, citing witnesses accounts.
The force of the blast sent spotlights crashing to the floor, Tischlinger said. About 40 people were inside the disco at the time, among them an unidentified male in his late teens, who told state television: "There was blood everywhere."
The wounded were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment of minor shrapnel wounds, and all but two were released, Tischlinger said.
Two of the victims will have to undergo surgery, including one with an injured kidney, but neither appeared to have suffered life-threatening wounds, the doctor told Austrian radio.
Police would not say whether they thought the grenade exploded after someone intentionally pulled the pin or whether the blast was an accident. The Federal Criminal Bureau, Austria's equivalent of the FBI, was sending explosives experts to the scene.
Authorities said the disco and a small adjoining restaurant were popular with young Serbian and Croatian immigrants. The disco is located in a former factory hall on the city's western edge, in run-down district populated almost entirely by people from the former Yugoslavia.
Police said they had been called to the club several months ago to investigate reports that youths were fighting with swords there. They did not elaborate.
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