Tag Archives: Explosion

Trip wire may have set off bomb in Austin, wounding two men: police

Police maintain a cordon near the site of an incident reported as an explosion in southwest Austin, Texas, U.S. March 18, 2018. REUTERS/Tamir Kalifa

By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – Two men on bicycles were wounded in an explosion of a bomb that may have been detonated by a trip wire, police said on Monday in the Texas capital, where earlier this month three parcel bombs killed two people.

The two men, thought to be in their 20s, suffered non-life threatening injuries and were taken to the hospital on Sunday after they came upon a suspicious device on the side of a road in a residential neighborhood on the west side of the city, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said during a press conference.

The possibility that the road-side bomb was triggered when someone handled, kicked or came in contact with a trip wire, differs from the previous explosions that were set off when individuals handled packages that were left on doorsteps, Manley said.

“We now need the community to have an extra level of vigilance and pay attention to any suspicious device,” he said. “Given that there may have been a different triggering mechanism in this device, we wanted to get that out as early as possible.”

Residents were told to stay in their homes in the west side neighborhood several miles from where the earlier blasts occurred, Manley said.

“We’re working on the belief that they are connected,” he said, noting that authorities will wait until daylight to process the scene.

FBI and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents were at the scene, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Twitter.

Investigators are still looking for the culprits behind the three parcel bombs that exploded in three separate east side neighborhoods of the city, killing two African-American males and leaving a 75-year-old Hispanic woman fighting for her life.

Earlier on Sunday, Austin police said whoever was responsible for the bombs was trying to send a message and should contact authorities to explain any motive.

“We are not going to understand that (message) until the suspect or suspects reach out to us to talk to us about what that message was,” Manley said.

Manley said police were also investigating the bombings as possible hate crimes.

The first bombing on March 2 killed Anthony Stephan House, a 39-year-old black man. It ripped a hole in a home entrance wall and damaged the front door.

A bomb last Monday morning killed Draylen Mason, a 17-year-old African American teenager and promising musician. It also injured his mother. A few hours later, a third bombing injured the 75-year-old Hispanic woman, who has not been named.

Police have received more than 735 calls about suspicious packages since the three parcel bomb attacks, but authorities had not found any that posed a security risk, Manley said.

A reward of $115,000 has been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible.

(Corrects with addition of missing word in paragraph 6.)

(Additional reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Louise Heavens)

British police sift through rubble at scene of fatal blast

Members of the emergency services move debris at the site of an explosion which destroyed a convenience store and a home in Leicester, Britain, February 25, 2018. REUTERS/Darren Staples

By Darren Staples

LEICESTER, England (Reuters) – British police searched for survivors on Monday in the rubble of a shop and apartment destroyed by an explosion that killed at least five people and injured five others in the city of Leicester on Sunday evening.

CCTV footage posted on the local newspaper’s website showed the entire front of the building shooting into the road as a car passed. The scene was then engulfed in fire.

The Leicester Mercury said the shop was a Polish convenience store called Zabka Leicester and above it was a two-story apartment.

Police and the fire service said it would take time to establish what caused the explosion but that there was no immediate indication it was linked to terrorism.

“There are still pockets of fire in the basement area of the building,” said Matt Crane of Leicestershire Fire Service.

“We have a significant number of specialist search and rescue teams who are supported by two search dogs.”

Five people were taken to hospital, one of whom remains in a critical condition, police said.

Salvage crews work at the scene of a convenience store and home that were destroyed by an explosion in Leicester, Britain, February 26, 2018. REUTERS/Darren Staples

Salvage crews work at the scene of a convenience store and home that were destroyed by an explosion in Leicester, Britain, February 26, 2018. REUTERS/Darren Staples

Local resident Harrish Patni told Sky News: “We heard this massive explosion, the shop window six doors away vibrated and we thought it can’t be a car accident, it didn’t sound like a crash.

“We came outside and there was a big cloud of smoke, bricks all across the road.”

Leicester, in the center of England, has long been one of Britain’s most culturally diverse cities, with a large population of people from the Asian subcontinent and many other ethnicities.

(Additional reporting by Andrew MacAskill and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Catherine Evans)

Hours after Afghan blast, confused families searched desperately for news

The photos of two brothers, who were killed during yesterday's suicide attack at a Shi'ite cultural centre, are seen on their graves in Kabul, Afghanistan. December 29, 2017.

By James Mackenzie and Abdul Aziz Ibrahimi

KABUL (Reuters) – Hours after the explosion that tore through a Shi’ite cultural center in the Afghan capital Kabul on Thursday, desperate families were still searching for news, as burned bodies were brought in and wards at the nearby Istiqlal hospital filled up.

The explosion that tore through a cramped basement conference room killed at least 41 people and wounded more than 80 and there were hours of confusion as victims were rushed to nearby hospitals.

People dig graves for the victims of yesterday's suicide attack at Shi'ite cultural centre in Kabul, Afghanistan December 29, 2017.

People dig graves for the victims of yesterday’s suicide attack at Shi’ite cultural centre in Kabul, Afghanistan December 29, 2017. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

“Everyone was at the hospital but at first nobody knew where they were, they were lost,” said Hasan Jan, whose nephews, Abdul Saboor Maqsoudi, 24, and brother Ali Paiman, 18, were among the dead.

“We couldn’t recognize him he was so burned and disfigured by smoke. We had to go back to the morgue three or four times,” he said after the two brothers were buried side by side in the Karte Sakhi cemetery in western Kabul.

“Finally they recognized him because of a ring on his finger and his shirt and belt and his watch.”

The attack, claimed by Islamic State, was the latest in at least two dozen bombings on Shi’ite targets in the Sunni-majority country over the past two years in a brutal campaign by the movement that has killed and wounded hundreds. According to some witnesses, the bomber in Thursday’s attack was a 10-year-old boy.

At the Tabian Social and Cultural Centre, in a large house down a lane in a mainly Shi’ite area of the city which also houses the Afghan Voice news agency, the windows are shattered and the floor is still stained with blood.

Heaped neatly in the courtyard, stands a pile of shoes belonging to victims, all that remains of the dead, many of them students attending a conference.

“They were just there for this discussion,” Hasan Jan said of his two nephews. “They wanted to learn about culture, the Quran and religion.”

“WHAT GOVERNMENT?”

In many ways, the short lives of the two brothers and the way they ended are emblematic of the lack of hope that has driven thousands of Afghans of their age to leave their country and try for a better life in Europe.

Abdul Saboor had studied civil engineering but like many young Afghans, he struggled to find work after graduation and had taken a job teaching English. His father died five years ago in another suicide attack and now that he and his brother are gone, his mother and sister are alone.

A relative morns on the grave of one of the victims, who was killed during yesterday's suicide attack at Shi'ite cultural centre in Kabul, Afghanistan December 29, 2017.

A relative morns on the grave of one of the victims, who was killed during yesterday’s suicide attack at Shi’ite cultural centre in Kabul, Afghanistan December 29, 2017. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

“He was the breadwinner,” Hasan Jan said. “Now the family has no support, there’s no man in the family.”

Although the government of President Ashraf Ghani and its NATO allies have claimed some success against Taliban insurgents since the United States announced a more robust military strategy this year, high-profile attacks in the cities have continued.

The government itself is chronically divided, often appearing more concerned with personal rivalries between its leaders and maneuvering ahead of presidential elections in 2019 than in confronting Afghanistan’s many problems.

Asked what more the government could be doing to ensure security and stability, Hasan Jan was scornful.

“What government?” he said. “There are several governments in Afghanistan, what government do you mean?

“We’ve lost our way. What government is going to provide help? There is nothing. All we want is security forces for our country.”

But he was equally dismissive of the militants who carried out the attack, which Islamic State said was ordered because of what it said were the cultural center’s links to Iran.

“Why are they doing it here? If America is the enemy, they should find Americans. If they want to attack English, they should find English. If they want to attack Iran, they should attack Iran,” he said.

“These people are innocent. People haven’t taken up arms. People being killed in mosques, in different places. No human could accept that. If they had even a small bit of humanity in them, they couldn’t accept that.”

(Editing by Nick Macfie)

North Korean defectors may have been exposed to radiation, says South

A North Korean flag flies on a mast at the Permanent Mission of North Korea in Geneva October 2, 2014.

By Yuna Park

SEOUL (Reuters) – At least four defectors from North Korea have shown signs of radiation exposure, the South Korean government said on Wednesday, although researchers could not confirm if they were was related to Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program.

The four are among 30 former residents of Kilju county, an area in North Korea that includes the nuclear test site Punggye-ri, who have been examined by the South Korean government since October, a month after the North conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test, Unification Ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun told a news briefing.

They were exposed to radiation between May 2009 and January 2013, and all defected to the South before the most recent test, a researcher at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, which carried out the examinations, told reporters.

North Korea has conducted six nuclear bomb tests since 2006, all in tunnels deep beneath the mountains of Punggye-ri, in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions and international condemnation.

The researcher cautioned that there were a number of ways people may be exposed to radiation, and that none of the defectors who lived had lived in Punggye-ri itself showed specific symptoms.

A series of small earthquakes in the wake of the last test – which the North claimed to be of a hydrogen bomb – prompted suspicions that it may have damaged the mountainous location in the northwest tip of the country.

Experts warned that further tests in the area could risk radioactive pollution.

After the Sept. 3 nuclear test, China’s Nuclear Safety Administration said it had begun emergency monitoring for radiation along its border with North Korea.

And in early December, a state-run newspaper in China’s Jilin province, which borders North Korea and Russia, published a page of “common sense” advice on how readers can protect themselves from a nuclear weapons attack or explosion.

Cartoon illustrations of ways to dispel radioactive contamination were also provided, such as using water to wash off shoes and using cotton buds to clean ears, as well as a picture of a vomiting child to show how medical help can be sought to speed the expulsion of radiation through stomach pumping and induced urination.

(Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Explosion rocks New York commuter hub, suspect in custody

New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks during a news conference outside the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal following reports of an explosion, in New York City, U.S. December 11, 2017.

By Nick Zieminski and Daniel Trotta

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A man with a homemade bomb strapped to his body set off an explosion at a New York commuter hub during rush hour on Monday, injuring himself and three others in what New York Mayor Bill de Blasio called an attempted terrorist attack.

The suspect in the incident at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, a block from Times Square, was identified as Akayed Ullah, the New York Police Department commissioner said. The suspect had burns and lacerations while three other people, including a police officer, had minor injuries.

The weapon was based on a pipe bomb and fixed to the suspect with zip ties and velcro, police said. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, speaking at a news conference near the site, described the device as “amateur level.”

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told the same news conference that the incident, which happened at the start of the city’s rush hour, was “an attempted terrorist attack.”

“As New Yorkers our lives revolve around the subways. When we hear of an attack in the subways it is incredibly unsettling,” de Blasio said.

New York City was a target, said John Miller, Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism.

NYPD Crime Scene Investigation team are seen outside the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal, after reports of an explosion, in New York City, U.S., December 11, 2017.

NYPD Crime Scene Investigation team are seen outside the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal, after reports of an explosion, in New York City, U.S., December 11, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Miller cited the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that killed more than 2,750 people in New York and nearly 3,000 people total; and the World Trade Center bombing of February 26, 1993, that killed six people.

“In the course of the post 9/11 world, as you are aware, there’s also been approximately 26 plots that we can talk about that have been prevented through intelligence, investigation and intervention.”

The incident was captured on security video, the police said. Video posted on NYPost.com showed smoke and a man lying in the tunnel that connects the Times Square subway station to the bus station. A photograph showed a man lying face down, with tattered clothes and burns on his torso.

“There was a stampede up the stairs to get out,” said Diego Fernandez, one of the commuters. “Everybody was scared and running and shouting.”

Alicja Wlodkowski, a Pennsylvania resident in New York for the day, was sitting in a restaurant in the bus terminal.

Police officers stand on a closed West 42nd Street near the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal after reports of an explosion in New York City, New York, U.S., December 11,

Police officers stand on a closed West 42nd Street near the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal after reports of an explosion in New York City, New York, U.S., December 11, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Segar

“Suddenly, I saw a group of people, like six people, running like nuts. A woman fell. No one even went to stop and help her because the panic was so scary.”

The bus terminal was temporarily shut down and a large swath of midtown Manhattan was closed to traffic. Subway train service was returning to normal after earlier disruptions.

WABC reported the suspect was in his 20s and that he has been in the United States for seven years and has an address in New York’s Brooklyn. The NYPD shut down the entire block and there was heavy police presence outside the home.

First reports of the incident began soon after 7 a.m. (1200 GMT). New York in December sees a surge of visitors who come to see elaborate store displays, the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and Broadway shows.

The incident rippled through U.S. financial markets, briefly weakening equity markets as they were starting trading for the week and giving a modest lift to safe-haven assets such as U.S. Treasuries.

S&P 500 index emini futures dipped in the moments after the initial reports of an explosion, but major stock indexes later opened slightly higher.

The incident occurred less than two months after an Uzbek immigrant killed eight people by speeding a rental truck down a New York City bike path, in an attack for which Islamic State claimed responsibility.

In September 2016, a man injured 31 people when he set off a homemade bomb in New York’s Chelsea district.

(Reporting By Nick Zieminski, Dan Trotta and Simon Webb in New York, additional reporting by Bernie Woodall, Gina Cherelus, Makini Brice and Fred Katayama; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Explosion rocks New York commuter hub, one suspect in custody

Police and fire crews block off the streets near the New York Port Authority in New York City, U.S. December 11, 2017 after reports of an explosion.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – An explosion rocked New York’s Port Authority, one of the city’s busiest commuter hubs, on Monday morning and police said one suspect was injured and in custody but that no-one else was hurt in the rush-hour incident.

Police confirmed one person was in custody but were not yet identifying the device used. Local news channel WABC cited police sources as saying a possible pipe bomb detonated in a passageway below ground at Port Authority and WPIX cited sources as saying a man with a “possible second device” has been detained in the subway tunnel.

The bus terminal was temporarily closed, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said in a Twitter statement.

“There was a stampede up the stairs to get out,” said Diego Fernandez, one of the commuters at Port Authority. “Everybody was scared and running and shouting.”

Commuters exit the New York Port Authority in New York City, U.S. December 11, 2017 after reports of an explosion.

Commuters exit the New York Port Authority in New York City, U.S. December 11, 2017 after reports of an explosion. REUTERS/Edward Tobin

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and President Donald Trump have been briefed on the incident, according to local media and the White House.

News of the incident jarred financial markets as trading was getting underway for the week. Standard  Poor’s 500 index emini futures pared gains, the dollar weakened against the yen and U.S. Treasury securities prices gained on a modest flight-to-safety bid.

The incident occurred less than two months after an Uzbek immigrant killed eight people by speeding a rental truck down a New York City bike path, in an attack for which Islamic State claimed responsibility.

In September 2016, a man injured more than two dozen people when he set off a homemade bomb in New York’s Chelsea district.

(Reporting By Nick Zieminski and Simon Webb in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

South Korea spy agency sees signs of planned new missile test by North

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits a cosmetics factory in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on October 28, 2017.

By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea may be planning a new missile test, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers on Thursday, after brisk activity was spotted at its research facilities, just days before U.S. President Donald Trump visits Seoul.

Reclusive North Korea has carried out a series of nuclear and missile tests in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions, but has not launched any missiles since firing one over Japan on Sept. 15, the longest such lull this year.

However a flurry of activity including the movement of vehicles has been detected at the North’s missile research facilities in Pyongyang, where the most recent missile test was conducted, pointing to another possible launch, South Korea’s Intelligence Service said in a briefing to lawmakers.

It did not say how the activity was detected.

North Korea has made no secret of its plans to perfect a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. It regularly threatens to destroy the United States and its “puppet”, South Korea.

“There is a possibility of a new missile launch given the active movement of vehicles around the missile research institute in Pyongyang. The North will constantly push for further nuclear tests going forward, and the miniaturization and diversification of warheads,” the intelligence agency said at the briefing.

The North’s nuclear testing site in the northwestern town of Punggye-ri could have been damaged by its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 3, according to Kim Byung-kee, Yi Wan-young and Lee Tae-gyu, members of South Korea’s parliamentary intelligence committee.

The explosion triggered an aftershock within eight minutes and three additional shocks.

Japanese broadcaster TV Asahi, citing unnamed sources, said on Tuesday a tunnel at the test site collapsed after that explosion, possibly killing more than 200 people. Reuters has not been able to verify the report which North Korea on Thursday denounced as false and defamatory.

Pyongyang will likely detonate more devices as it tries to master the miniaturization of nuclear warheads to put atop missiles, the lawmakers said.

The third tunnel at the Punggye-ri complex remained ready for another test “at any time”, while construction had resumed at a fourth tunnel, making it unable to be used “for a considerable amount of time”, they added.

Trump is to visit five Asian nations in coming days for talks in which North Korea will be a major focus. The visit includes the North’s lone major ally, China, and U.S. allies Japan and South Korea, which have watched with increasing worry as Trump and North Korea have exchanged bellicose rhetoric.

 

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin in Seoul; Editing by Nick Macfie)

 

Several wounded after blast hits bus in Turkey’s Izmir

Plainclothes police officers stand after an explosion hit a shuttle bus carrying prison guards in Izmir, Turkey, August 31, 2017. REUTERS/Kemal Aslan

By Ece Toksabay

ANKARA (Reuters) – Seven people were wounded when an explosion hit a shuttle bus carrying prison guards in the Turkish coastal province of Izmir on Thursday, and authorities were investigating a possible terrorist attack, the local mayor said.

The bus was hit as it passed a garbage container at around 7:40 a.m. (0440 GMT), Levent Piristina, the mayor of Izmir’s Buca district, said on Twitter.

Photographs he posted on social media showed its windows blown out and its windscreen shattered. The force of the blast appeared to have blown out some of the bus’s panels, and the nearby street was littered with debris.

“We are getting information from police sources and they are focusing on the possibility of a terrorist attack,” he said, adding that all seven wounded were in good condition.

Both state-run TRT Haber and private broadcaster Dogan news agency said the explosion was caused by a bomb placed in the garbage container that exploded when the shuttle bus passed.

No one immediately claimed responsibility. Both Kurdish militants and jihadist Islamic State militants have carried out suicide and bomb attacks in major Turkish cities in recent years.

Kurdish militants have previously targeted buses carrying security personnel.

In December, a bomb killed at least 13 soldiers and wounded more than 50 when it ripped through a bus carrying off-duty military personnel in the central city of Kayseri, an attack the government blamed on Kurdish militants.

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), considered a terrorist organization by the United States, Turkey and the European Union, has waged a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.

The outlawed PKK wants autonomy for Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast.

(Editing by Dominic Evans and David Dolan)

Explosions hit flood-swamped Arkema chemical plant in Texas

Explosions hit flood-swamped Arkema chemical plant in Texas

By David Shepardson and Jon Herskovitz

WASHINGTON/AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – Two explosions hit the flood-swamped Arkema SA <AKE.PA> chemical plant 25 miles northeast of Houston early on Thursday, and a sheriff’s deputy was taken to a hospital after inhaling fumes, the French company said.

Arkema said further explosions of organic peroxides produced by the Crosby, Texas, plant and stored onsite were possible, and it urged people to stay away as the fire burns itself out. Black smoke was billowing from the site, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez told reporters at a televised news briefing.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday it had temporarily barred flights from the area because of the risk of fire or explosion.

Assistant Fire Chief Bob Rayall said on Thursday that “a series of pops” at the scene led to the fires. “We haven’t had massive explosions,” Rayall said, emphasizing the fires had been contained so far.

Rayall said three of the site’s nine containers with the peroxides had lost refrigeration, and one had caught fire.

Arkema said the company had no way to prevent fires because the plant is swamped by about 6 feet (1.83 m) of water due to flooding from Harvey, which came ashore in Texas last week as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, knocking out power to its cooling system.

The company said the Harris County Emergency Operations Center notified it at about 2 a.m. CDT of two explosions and black smoke coming from the plant in Crosby.

“Organic peroxides are extremely flammable and, as agreed with public officials, the best course of action is to let the fire burn itself out,” Arkema said.

The peroxides are used to make plastic resins, polystyrene, paints and other products.

The sheriff’s office said on Twitter that the deputy had been taken to hospital, and 14 others drove themselves there as a precaution. Eight have been released, and seven remain under observation.

The department said it believed the smoke was a “non-toxic irritant.”

“Remain well clear of the area and follow directions of local officials,” the National Weather Service said after the explosions, noting that winds were from the west to the east from 4 to 9 miles (6.4 to 14.5 km) per hour.

The plant had been closed since Friday, and the company had evacuated remaining workers on Tuesday. Harris County ordered the evacuation of several hundred residents within a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) radius.

“We want local residents to be aware that product is stored in multiple locations on the site, and a threat of additional explosion remains,” Arkema said. “Please do not return to the area within the evacuation zone.”

The company’s shares were down 1.9 percent in Paris trading.

Richard Rowe, chief executive officer of Arkema’s North America unit, told reporters on Wednesday that chemicals on the site would catch fire and explode if they were not properly cooled.

Arkema said it opted not to move chemicals before the storm but made extensive preparations. A company spokeswoman did not immediately say when Arkema believes the fires will end.

Rowe said a fire would not pose any “long-term harm or impact.”

The plant has been without electric service since Sunday. It lost refrigeration when backup generators were flooded, and workers transferred products from warehouses into diesel-powered refrigerated containers.

The company said some refrigeration of back-up containers has been compromised because of high water levels and that it was monitoring temperature levels remotely.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas. Additional reporting by Brendan O’Brien; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Lisa Von Ahn)

Probe of fatal Minneapolis school blast focuses on repair work

Damage to the building is seen as emergency personnel work the scene of school building collapse at Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., August 2, 2017. REUTERS/Adam Bettcher

By Gina Cherelus

(Reuters) – Authorities in Minneapolis were investigating on Thursday whether contractors working at a Christian private school caused a gas explosion that leveled a building, killing two staff members and injuring nine other people.

“Various agencies will be on site this morning to pinpoint exactly how this happened,” the fire department’s assistant chief, Bryan Tyner, said on Thursday. “That investigation will include local, state and federal agencies.”

Minneapolis fire department officials told reporters on Wednesday there were early indications that a gas line was ruptured by contractors working on the campus.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which investigates accidents involving pipelines, said on Thursday it had sent an emergency response team to the site and that its officials were expected to brief reporters later in the day.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has also sent agents and trained canines to join the investigation.

School receptionist Ruth Berg and custodian John Carlson were killed by the blast that tore through the Upper School of the Minnehaha Academy at about 10 a.m. local time on Wednesday, officials said.

“Please keep John’s family, Ruth’s family, those who were injured, and our school community, in your prayers,” the school said on Facebook.

The school described Carlson, 82, as its “biggest cheerleader.” He had graduated from Minnehaha in 1953. Berg, 47, was engaged to be married, local media reported.

One of the injured was in critical condition at a local hospital. He was named as Bryan Duffey, an assistant soccer coach at the school. One other person was listed as satisfactory, while seven were treated and released, the Hennepin County Medical Center said on Thursday.

“We pray for his healing and for the wisdom of the doctors and nurses caring for him at this time,” the school said in a statement on Thursday, referring to Duffey.

Minnehaha Academy was founded in 1913 and teaches more than 800 students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade on two campuses, according to its website.

School was not in session on Wednesday due to the summer break. City fire officials said the situation would have been far worse if pupils were in class.

Hundreds of people crowded into a chapel for a prayer service at the academy on Wednesday night.

“We’re going to get through it,” said Minnehaha Academy President Donna Harris, who was injured in the explosion. “We trust God. He is going to do phenomenal work.”

(Reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York; Additional reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Diane Craft)