Bomb Caused Church Blast, Authorities Say

A powerful explosion that blew open a church wall and injured 33 worshipers was caused by a bomb, officials said Monday. It was the second attack on a church in the county in less than six months.

Investigators worked to determine if there was any connection between the two explosions.

“The next step is to run down leads to determine who did this,” said special agent Jerry Singer of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

FBI and ATF agents said they had found nothing to link the Sunday morning explosion at the First Assembly of God Church to the bomb that killed a volunteer Dec. 30 at a church in Oakwood, another east-central Illinois town, which is about 10 miles west of Danville.

The December bomb killed Brian Plawer, 46, who was at the Oakwood United Methodist Church putting together a newsletter. The first bomb, which went off on a Tuesday, not during services, was “a somewhat sophisticated explosive device” that had been placed in a box outside the church, Singer said. It exploded when the box was moved.

There have been no arrests in that incident.

Singer gave few details about the Danville bomb. The News-Gazette in Champaign quoted sources as saying it was a homemade pipe bomb.

The ATF laboratory in Rockville, Md., will examine the Danville explosives for any resemblance to the Oakwood bomb and others throughout the country, Singer said.

Two girls, ages 14 and 15, were upgraded from serious to good condition Monday at a hospital in Urbana, where they were being treated for head cuts. Three people were in fair condition in a Danville hospital. One was released Monday.