Car bomb blast injures one in Palu

Car bomb blast injures one in Palu

A small bomb exploded on a minibus in Central Sulawesi province on Thursday, injuring one person, police said.

Maj. Sambas Kurniawan, a local police chief, said it was not immediately clear who was behind the early afternoon blast, which occurred in a region that for years has been plagued by sectarian violence.

Eleven people were on the bus that was traveling from the predominantly Muslim provincial capital of Palu to the largely Christian town of Tentena, he said, adding that a 54-year-old man was injured.

Central Sulawesi was the scene of a bloody war between Christians and Muslims in 2001-2002 that killed around 1,000 people from both communities.

An attack at Tentena Market in Poso regency in May killed 22 people.

Kurniawan described Thursday's bomb as a low-intensity device that contained sulfur and ball bearings.

He said one woman told police she saw two men put what appeared to be a backpack under one of the van's seats before it departed, but that she had no idea at the time it was a bomb.

Thursday's explosion went off near Toboli, a village in Parigi district, 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) northeast of Jakarta. --AP