Post date: Jun 11, 2013 9:32:59 PM
Libyan police in Tripoli investigate the wreckage of an Italian diplomatic car after a bomb was found planted under it.
LIBYA TRIPOLI (JUNE 11, 2013) (REUTERS) - A bomb planted under an Italian diplomatic car in the Libyan capital Tripoliwas discovered and exploded on Tuesday (June 11) after police cordoned off the area, diplomatic and security sources said.
No one was injured in the incident which happened as the diplomats had stopped to go shopping in the central Zawiyat Dahmani area on Tuesday afternoon.A witness who works at the shop where the car was parked before it exploded, said someone told the two people that had been in the car that there was something underneath the back bumper.
"I was just standing there about five minutes before the car bomb. There were two Italians in the car and then they parked and got out of it. I'm not sure, maybe they got a phone call, I don't know. God knows. They told them that there is some thing under the back bumper. Then they stepped back and they called the police station. The police came and closed the area. About 15 or 30 minutes after that the car exploded. Thank God no one got hurt and everything is fine," said witness Mustafa al Saed.
A Foreign ministry spokesman in Rome said two embassy officials has been traveling in the car.
A witness said the explosion was low intensity. A Reuters photographer at the scene said the back of the car was badly damaged and the windows were blasted out.
There has been a spate of bombings in recent months in Libya - in April the French embassy was bombed in the capital while in the volatile eastern city of Benghazi, four Americans - including the ambassador - were killed on Sept. 11 last year.
The Foreign Ministry said security would be heightened for Italian officials in Libya, and that the attempted bomb attack would be investigated.
In January, unidentified gunmen in Benghazi opened fire on an Italian consul's armored car as he returned to his residence. The diplomat was unhurt.