Peru announced a security clampdown yesterday after nine people were killed and 30 injured in a powerful car-bomb explosion near the United States Embassy in Lima three days before the scheduled visit of President George W. Bush.
Vice-President Raul Diez Canseco said after an emergency early-morning cabinet meeting yesterday that Lima's historic centre would be sealed off and police patrols stepped up after Wednesday night's blast, "which leaves Peru in mourning."
It was not immediately known who planted the bomb, which exploded at around 10:45 p.m. local time (Thursday 0345 GMT) across the street from the embassy. The explosion recalled scenes of carnage from a decade ago when Peru was gripped by ultra-leftist rebel violence.
The blast was so powerful that one body was blown about 50 metres across a dual carriageway separating the scene of the explosion from the embassy. The victim had a leg and clothes blown off. Part of a car engine lay nearby.
Diez Canseco said President Alejandro Toledo would fly home soon from a United Nations development summit in Monterrey, Mexico. Toldeo, speaking to RPP radio hours after the blast, said: "We will not yield even a centimetre to terrorism."
The president condemned the bomb attack and guaranteed full safety for Bush during the US leader's 17-hour visit this weekend.
"My deepest condolences to the families of the victims who have been hit in such a cowardly way by a terrorist attack," Toledo said. "I want to express my strongest condemnation."
The dead included one police officer and an 18-year-old man who had been roller-blading.
Juan Piperis, deputy commander of Lima's firefighters, told reporters: "It looks like there were around 66 pounds (30 kilograms) of explosives." The blast left a large dent in the ground. A green Toyota car at the scene was barely recognizable and other nearby vehicles were torched.
Bodies covered by orange plastic sheets lay strewn on the pavement amid broken glass, mangled metal, shattered tiles and crushed cinder blocks.
The blast occurred outside a Banco de Credito bank in a shopping centre across a wide avenue in front of the main entrance to the US Embassy.
(China Daily March 22, 2002)
