Pipe Bombs Explode in South African Marketplace, Killing 3

Two explosions in a crowded shopping area during the hectic Christmas Eve rush Tuesday killed three people, injured dozens and stunned residents of this sleepy town near Cape Town.

“I am so sad,” sobbed Jan April, who clung to his wife at a local hospital where their 9-year-old daughter, Juanina, was pronounced dead on arrival. “Whoever did this is cruel, very cruel.”

The early afternoon blasts at a large grocery store and a pharmacy a few blocks away were caused by pipe bombs, Police Supt. Albie van Schalkwyk said.

Survivors described scenes of horror and chaos in central Worcester, a farming town in the Western Cape wine country, 60 miles northeast of Cape Town.

“I was standing in the queue to pay when I saw a white light and flames burning,” said Anita April, who left her two children outside the grocery store’s entrance, near concrete trash bins where one of the bombs apparently was hidden.

Standing barefoot at Eben Donges hospital, in the arms of her husband, she recounted riding in the ambulance with her daughter.

“Juanina was in too much pain to even cry,” Anita April said, breaking down. “She was hit in the stomach. They had shot her liver away.”

Two children, including Juanina, and an adult were killed in the explosions, said Dr. Helise Schumann. She said 49 injured people were at the hospital but that 20 or so would be discharged.

The inside of the bombed supermarket in Worcester was a shambles, with smeared blood on the floor, the metal ceiling partially collapsed and goods strewn about.

Deputy Mayor Linda Fibeko said police prevented an armed robbery attempt at the supermarket the day before, and some people believed that gunmen who got away then may be responsible for Tuesday’s bombing.

Pharmacist Harish Narotam was standing outside his store when the second explosion went off.

“I just heard a massive bang, and then there was something dripping out of my ear. It was blood,” he told the South African Press Assn.