Bomb explosion rocks Pekanbaru, kills two people
Fadli, Batam
An explosion ripped through a shop house in the Riau capital of Pekanbaru early on Tuesday, killing two people and severely injuring four others.
Pekanbaru Police chief Sr. Comr. Suro Djauhari said the explosion killed Dewi Sriyati, 20, a maid and Sipon, 18, a shop assistant.
It also severely injured the shop's owner Along, his wife, Yuliana, and his son, Stephen. The three were taken to the Police Mobile Brigade Hospital.
A badly burned unidentified man was found by the police after the explosion, some 30 meters away from the spot.
"The victim cannot be identified yet because he is still in a critical condition," spokesman of Riau Provincial Police Adj. Sr. Comr. S. Pandiangan said, quoted by AFP.
He would not say whether the man was linked to the bombing.
The explosion happened at dawn on Tuesday, only few hours before a district court in the city began the trial of a man charged with the bombing of a church on Christmas Eve in 2000, which killed five people and injured 21 others in the province.
The explosion happened at a shop in Delima subdistrict, Pekanbaru in front of the Tampan morning market, about one kilometer south of downtown Pekanbaru, Pandiangan said.
On the right side of the shop there was a Padang restaurant and on the left side, a vacant lot.
"We are questioning witnesses and trying to find who was behind (the explosion)," Pandiangan said.
According to a preliminary investigation by the Riau Police, the explosive used in the bombing contained RDX Nitrate, the same substance used in the Bali bombing in 2002 and the Marriott bombing last year.
The Bali bombing claimed the lives of more than 200 people, mostly foreign tourists, while the Marriott bombing killed 13 people, including the suicide bomber, who was allegedly a member of the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror network.
Pandiangan said the Riau Police were looking into the incident and whether it was connected with the trial of Zuflius bin Yunus, the church bomber.
The situation in the city was calm after the incident, Pandiangan said.