4 Die in Deadliest S. Africa Bomb Explosion in a Year

A bomb hidden in a trash bin exploded today outside a bank, killing four people and injuring 19, police said. It was the deadliest bombing in South Africa in more than a year.

Three black men and a white woman were killed in the 1:30 blast outside a branch of the Standard Bank in Roodepoort, a city bordering the west side of Johannesburg.

The explosion followed four other bombings in the past two weeks which authorities have blamed on the outlawed African National Congress guerrilla movement.

The ANC had no immediate comment on the bombing, but issued a statement from its headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia, saying the month of June “must be a period of united and decisive popular offensive” against the government.

The statement endorsed a three-day, anti-apartheid protest scheduled to start on Monday, saying South Africa’s economy “must grind to a halt” on those days.

A police spokesman said eight people were seriously injured in the explosion, including two whites and six blacks. He said 11 other people suffered lesser injuries.

Waiting for Traffic Light

Police said most of the victims apparently were waiting at a street corner for a traffic light to change when the explosion occurred.

The blast shattered at least a dozen windows in the bank, as well as windows in nearby stores, and glass was strewn across a nearby intersection in Roodepoort’s central business district. Police said the explosive device was a small limpet mine, which can be attached to another object.

A majority of the bombings blamed on the ANC have involved limpet mines.

The death toll from today’s explosion was the highest from a bombing in South Africa since four white policemen were killed by a car bomb outside a Johannesburg courthouse in May, 1987.