Blast Injures 27 in Austrian Disco
A grenade blast sprayed tiny metal pellets and shrapnel through a discotheque filled with young Balkan immigrants early Saturday, injuring 27 people, Austrian police said.
The explosion ripped through the X-Large Disco in Linz, about 100 miles west of Vienna, leaving patrons, most younger than 20, with tiny steel balls embedded in their skin and bodies, a doctor said.
Police would not say whether they believed the blast was intentional.
Experts said the grenade was designed to injure, not kill. Grenades like it are readily available on the black market in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, they said.
The wounded were taken to nearby hospitals, and all but two were released, officials said.
Those two will have to undergo surgery, but neither appeared to have life-threatening wounds, a doctor said.
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