SARAH BULLEN, Cape Town | Monday 1.00pm
POLICE spokesman for urban anti-terror unit Operation Good Hope, Captain Neville Malila, confirmed on Monday that the the bomb detonated in popular gay nightclub on Friday night was homemade.
The bomb went off inside the premises of the popular Blah Bar on Somerset Road in Green Point at 12.20am on Friday when the area was teeming with people. Malila said that, while police are continuing to interview patrons in an attempt to establish whether any witnesses saw the bomb being planted, there are no leads so far.
Nine people, including bar manager Marnitz Vermeulen, waiter Ian Martin, a cleaner and co-owner of the bar, Craig Gibson, were injured when the homemade device, possibly a pipebomb, detonated. Most of the damage was sustained from glass and shrapnel from the blast.
Four other people injured in the explosion were on Sunday discharged from city hospitals, but two of the more seriously injured victims, who almost had feet ripped off in the blast, will remain in hospital for operations.
Two victims were sitting at the same table when the bomb went off. The one victim’s heel was torn off in the blast. Malila said that the bomb detonated behind an internal wall, which probably limited the damage to the bar and injuries to patrons.