Kathmandu - Maoist rebels struck in the heart of Nepal yesterday, bombing a Coca-Cola plant in the capital, as anxiety mounted about more guerrilla attacks. Maoist rebels seeking to set up a communist republic bombed the bottling plant in Kathmandu at dawn, blowing off the roof and shattering windows but causing no casualties.
The attack came on the third full day of an army offensive against the rebels ordered by King Gyanendra.
"The current crisis in the country will be over soon," state radio quoted the Prime Minister, Mr Sher Bahadur Deuba, as saying.
Information Minister Jayaprakash Prasad Gupta said the attack on the Coca-Cola plant was part of the rebels' hit-and-run tactics. "We are tightening security measures in and around Kathmandu, we know they are present here too."
Witnesses said six armed men knocked on the factory's gates, saying they were police. They jumped over the iron gates when security guards asked them for identity cards.