PAKISTAN: At least two people are killed and 15 injured after a car bomb explodes outside a KFC fast-food restaurant in Karachi

Record ID: 358169

  • Title: PAKISTAN: At least two people are killed and 15 injured after a car bomb explodes outside a KFC fast-food restaurant in Karachi
  • Date: 15th November 2005
  • Summary: WIDE OF CARS BURNING OUTSIDE BUILDING/ AMBULANCE ARRIVING WITH SIREN SOUNDING
  • Embargoed: 30th November 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA67GTOIMIB5OGOS1ACWLHTGWOR
  • Story Text: A car bomb exploded outside a KFC fast-food restaurant in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi on Tuesday (November 15), killing two people and wounding about 15, some critically, police and doctors said.
    A government spokesman said information was still coming in from the scene, and the death toll was unclear. Some of the wounded suffered severe burns, hospital doctors and police said.
    The car bomb exploded outside a KFC outlet in central Karachi just before 9 a.m. local time (0400 GMT), gutting the restaurant and shattering the windows of a nearby six-storey office block housing several oil and gas exploration firms.
    "It is Terrorism, there was a blast in a car and it caused a crater," said Manzoor Mughal, chief of investigation for Karachi police, told Reuters.
    "It was a locally made bomb, we are investigating, it was a KIA car, we gave the number to you, it is a white coloured car."
    The restaurant was closed at the time of the blast.
    An ambulance crew member for the Edhi Foundation, Pakistan's largest charity, told Reuters six bodies had been taken to hospital, but doctors there said only two were dead, though six of the casualties admitted were in a critical condition.
    Two other KFC restaurants, a Pakistani franchise of the global food chain owned by YUM Brands Inc <YUM.N>, have been the targets of attacks in Karachi in recent months.
    Militant groups, some linked to al Qaeda, have been blamed for several bombings targeting U.S. and Western interests in the city in recent years.
    President Pervez Musharraf ordered a crackdown in July on militant groups, particularly those fuelling hatred between Pakistan's majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shi'ites.
    Some Sunni militant groups have forged ties with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
    A senior officer in the police bomb-disposal squad said the bomb had been locally made, weighed around five kg (10 lbs), and was detonated by a timing device.
    Police said there were casualties in and outside the office block. Some had severe burns.
    Many of the injured were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.
    "We were just disembarking from our car and the blast occurred a few yards away in the parked car and then we just ran away," said one unidentified victim.
    Some banks on the ground floor of the office building also felt the force of the blast, which blew other cars on the road to pieces. Tenants of the building include Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (PPL) <PPL.KA>
    Another KFC restaurant and a McDonald's outlet came under attack in September in Karachi. Two bombs exploded within minutes of each other at the two fast-food franchises, injuring at least two people, police said.
    In May, six KFC employees were burned to death when their restaurant was torched by a mob during an outbreak of Muslim sectarian violence, which has plagued the city for years.
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