STATE : Indio Bank Blast Scatters Money
An explosion ripped through a bank in this desert community early today, engulfing the building in flames and scattering money throughout the parking lot, authorities said.
Firefighters doused the blaze about six hours after the 3:18 a.m. blast at the one-story Security Pacific branch, police said. There were no injuries reported, and most of the money was retrieved.
Today’s blast was the third unexplained explosion at a Southern California desert bank in five weeks, police said.
It was unknown if the three explosions were related, but all blasts occurred at the night deposit boxes in the early morning hours of a Monday, said Indio Police spokesman Garry Heckman.
On May 7, a small fire erupted after a pre-dawn blast at a Palm Springs bank. In the early morning hours of May 21, a night deposit box was bombed in nearby Rancho Mirage.
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