A hand grenade exploded in a packed classroom at a school in Addis Ababa on Monday, injuring 15 students, police said. A police officer, who did not want to be identified, said the grenade’s safety pin had been found under a desk in the blood-splattered classroom for fourth grade students at Kokebe-Tsibah school.
The casualties, some of whom were seriously injured, are aged 9 to 12. There were 59 students in the classroom when the grenade went off just after students had finished their morning break around 10.30 am ((07:30GMT), police said.
Police declined to give any more details about the explosion, saying they were still investigating. Lt. Haile Abebe, a representative for Addis Ababa police, told Fana Radio that a fourth grade student had taken the grenade into the classroom, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation?s monitoring service.
It was not immediately possible to contact Haile. The classroom was covered in blood and students’ shoes and text books littered the room. – Sapa-AP