Blast Rocks Church, Injuring 33 Attending Sunday Services

DANVILLE, Ill. — An explosion ripped through a church Sunday morning, injuring 33 members of the congregation. Two teenage girls were seriously wounded.

The blast tore a hole in the side of the First Assembly of God Church during a service attended by about 300 people.

“I couldn’t see,” the Rev. Dennis Rogers said. “The place was completely darkened by smoke. I told the people to move as quickly and quietly as you can out of the building.”

The cause of the blast was not immediately known.

The force of the explosion shattered windows as far as 100 yards away. Bits of glass and twisted metal littered the street.

Agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were called in from Chicago and Springfield, agent Jerry Singer said. Singer noted that a bomb exploded Dec. 30 at a church in Oakwood, about 15 miles from Danville, killing a church volunteer. That blast is still under investigation.

Danville, population about 34,000, is on the east-central edge of Illinois, 120 miles south of Chicago.

Six of the injured were in fair or stable condition Sunday at a Danville hospital. Two teenage girls with head wounds were listed as serious but stable at an Urbana hospital. The 25 others were treated and released from hospitals.