News
Tanzania: At least 30 injured in suspected bomb blast in Church attack in northern city of Arusha
At least 30 people were injured, three seriously, in a suspected bomb attack Sunday at a packed new Catholic church in the northern Tanzanian city of Arusha, police said.
Witnesses said at least one person had been trampled to death in the stampede after the blast.
“There have been 30 people wounded, three in a serious condition, and one person has been arrested,” said regional police chief Liberatus Sabas. It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion.
“This is a sad day, our security forces are mobilized, and the culprits will be arrested and brought to justice,” said Arusha’s commissioner Magesa Mulongo. “For the time being we don’t know if it is a bomb,” he added.
However, tensions between Christian and Muslim communities in Tanzania have been simmering in recent months, and local member of parliament Godbless Lema condemned the blast as the work of “criminals”.
In February, a Catholic priest was shot dead outside his church on the largely Muslim archipelago of Zanzibar, the second such killing in recent months. A church was also set on fire on Zanzibar in February.
Last month, in the far south of Tanzania, police fired tear gas to disperse around 200 Christian rioters attempting to torch a mosque over an argument over who should be allowed to slaughter animals.
