A bomb packed with 50 kilograms of dynamite hidden under a car was responsible for an explosion that killed nine people and injured more than 30 near the US embassy overnight, Interior Minister Fernando Rospigliosi said this afternoon.
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A Peruvian policeman stands over a body after the car bomb near in Lima Photo: Reuters
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"Initial reports of two car bomb blasts were inaccurate," he said.
The minister said investigators had ascertained that the explosive was hidden under a car parked outside a bank office at the El Polo shopping center in the eastern Lima neighborhood of La Molina, some 100 meters away from the embassy.
Smoke was seen coming from under the vehicle before the blast, he said. Two policemen who went to investigate were killed in the explosion.
"The policemen got hold of a fire extinguisher and went to have a look," Mr Rospigliosi said in a radio interview. "That was when the bomb went off and killed both, as well as other people nearby."
He said investigators had received no claims of responsibility for the blast and were "ruling nothing out."
The attacks revived memories of Peru's notorious leftist Shining Path guerrilla organization, dismantled a decade ago under former president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000). From 1980 to 1992, some 25,000 deaths and 30 billion dollars in damage were attributed to the rebel group.
Spokesmen for the Shining Path, in a telephone call to AFP from their prison cell, denied that the group had carried out the attack.
The smaller and also leftist Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement was also eradicated during that time.
The bombing comes three days before a visit by US President Mr George W. Bush. Leaving today for a United Nations development summit in Mexico, the president is due in Lima on Saturday for his first visit to South America.
During his 17-hour visit to Lima, he will meet his counterparts from Peru, Colombia and Bolivia and the vice president of Ecuador on regional trade issues and the wars on terror and drugs.
AFP and