Five injured in bomb explosion in Tanzania's coastal Tanga region

Five people were injured on Thursday night after a hand grenade exploded inside a cinema hall at Amboni on the outskirts of Tanzania's Indian Ocean coastal city of Tanga, police said on Friday.

"The grenade exploded on Thursday at 9:00 p.m. local time when a huge crowd was watching a movie," Tanga regional police commander Fraser Kashai said, adding that police were holding one suspect for questioning.

The explosion occurred almost a week after police in Tanzania's northern coastal region of Tanga seized 475 dynamite explosives and arrested one suspect in connection with the haul.

Kashai told a news conference that when people were watching a movie an unidentified person was seen throwing an object which exploded with a loud bang, sending shockwaves to residents in the area.

"The person who threw the object suspected to be a hand grenade vanished immediately," said Kashai.

He said the explosion sent residents in the area running away from their houses in fear of more explosions.

The area with a population of 10,000 turned into a ghost town when its pubs and entertainment centers vacated, at least temporarily.

The Tanga regional defense and security committee under the chair of the regional commissioner Magalula Saidi Magalula held a lengthy meeting on Friday to deliberate on the explosion.

In 2013 and 2014, dynamite was used in Arusha and Zanzibar in terror attacks in which scores of people were killed. Endi