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Injured officers target of Budapest explosion: Hungarian police chief

Xinhua, September 26, 2016 Adjust font size:

Hungarian national police chief Karoly Papp believes the two police officers hurt by Saturday night's powerful explosion in downtown Budapest were actually the targets of the blast.

Papp told a Sunday news conference in Budapest he thought the officers, who were in the midst of a regular patrol of the area, had been targeted for "execution" by the perpetrator.

He also confirmed that one of the officers was a woman who had sustained life-threatening injuries while the wounds of her male companion were said to be "serious." Both had required surgery and were in stable condition.

Papp confirmed that the explosive had been a homemade bomb with some form of shrapnel inside.

Police are offering a 10 million forint (about 36,700 dollars) reward to anyone with information leading to the perpetrator, who Papp described as 170 cm tall, and somewhere between the ages of 20 and 25. He was wearing a light colored floppy hat, a dark canvas jacket, blue jeans, and white athletic shoes.

Asked if he thought the blast had been a terrorist attack, Papp said only that police had seven different hypotheses and were following through on all seven. The police were working together with the Anti-Terrorist Center and the civilian secret service to find the person responsible, he added. Fully 145 cameras (surveillance cameras and shots taken by eyewitnesses) had been trained on the site and police were analyzing them all.

Meanwhile, he said, measures had been taken to tighten security at Budapest's international airport, on all roads crossing the border and on all international trains. Police have also set up a hot line which anyone with information can call.

The explosion occurred on Saturday night about 10:30 p.m. local time (8:30 p.m. GMT) outside a shop on Budapest's crowded downtown ring road, as the two police officers, who were on patrol, passed by. They were the only ones hurt although the building next to the bomb was defaced and several cars suffered damage. Much of the area has been cordoned off ever since although residents of nearby buildings have been allowed to return home. Endit