West Java Police Gegana Team Investigates Fatal Explosion at Building Supply Store

Purwakarta Police and the West Java Regional Police’s Gegana bomb squad have not yet been able to determine the type or cause of an explosion at a building supply store that killed one worker. Police also discovered a hole 40 centimetres deep at the crime scene. The scene of the explosion at the building supply store on Jalan Raya Wanayasa-Purwakarta remains cordoned off with police line. The West Java Police Gegana team and Purwakarta Police are still investigating the incident that killed an employee of the building materials store. Based on the crime scene investigation conducted, police have so far been unable to confirm the type of explosion or its cause, as they must await the results of the assessment by the West Java Police Gegana team. Purwakarta Police Criminal Investigation Unit Head, AKP I Made Purwantara, stated that they could not yet confirm the type of explosion and its cause because they must wait for test results from the Gegana Brimob team following the crime scene investigation. According to the Criminal Investigation Unit Head, after conducting the crime scene investigation for approximately one hour until Sunday evening, police secured evidence in the form of plastic and fabric fragments from the explosion site. ‘The victim was thrown up to two metres from the point of the hole, which has a diameter of 40 centimetres and is suspected to be the point of the explosion,’ said AKP I Made Purwantara on Monday. During the crime scene investigation, the West Java Police Gegana Brimob team and Purwakarta Police officers also examined the condition of the victim’s body, which was still lying at the explosion site, before eventually evacuating the body of Ahmad Zaelani to Bayu Asih Hospital in Purwakarta using an ambulance. In addition to killing a building materials employee, the explosion also damaged at least six houses and a mosque. The blast was reportedly heard up to a radius of four kilometres. Purwakarta Police have not yet been able to explain in detail the primary source of the explosion.