Mwanza Regional Police Commander Valentino Mlowola.
Mwanza. One person was injured on Monday evening when an object, believed to be home-made bomb, exploded at an Evangelical Lutheran Church premises in Mwanza.
This occurred at 8.20pm at Makongoro Mission when a church worker, Ms Benadeta Alfred (25), was attending her duties in the church’s restrooms.
Reports from eyewitnesses say that Ms Alfred was trying to lift something which was in a gift wrapper that had been left in the room by an unknown person or persons exploded, injuring her on her face and legs.
A church security guard, Mr Charles Mathayo, said that they heard a heavy explosion followed by screams from Ms Alfred who was crying for help from inside the building.
On reaching scene of the explosion, they saw the injured woman on the ground screaming as she bled from various parts of her body.
“I heard someone yelling for help, as I reached the scene, I saw a woman lying down, and beside her, there were things that I couldn’t identify,” said Mr Mathayo.
Another eyewitness, Ms Erina Emmanuel, a computer student at a college owned by the church, said she heard an explosion that was followed by a cry for help, but since she and others had no clue of what was happening, they simply ran away in fear.
One of the church leaders who wished to remain anonymous on the grounds that the matter had not been discussed by the management, said the deadly object had been at the place since last Friday.
The leader said dangerous “gift” had been left on a crate of soda.
He said the ushers thought it was someone’s treasured parcel that had been forgotten as it was in an attractive gift wrapper.
He added that after seeing that the box had stayed for long without anyone showing up to pick it up, the church employee made the decision to transfer it to a more secure place in the church – where it ended up exploding.
Ms Alfred was later sent to Bugando Referral Hospital where she was admitted for further treatment. Mwanza Regional Police Commander Valentino Mlowola confirmed the incident, saying preliminary investigations show that the device was a homemade bomb, dubbed IED.
He said that the police were still on a manhunt for the thugs who were involved in placing the deadly device at the church premises.
RPC Mlowola urged the members of the community to inform the police whenever they come across suspicious items and avoid picking them.
The explosion comes after a lull in similar other attacks in scores of churches in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar that have been blamed on religious extremists. Police, particularly in Zanzibar, have been blamed for not acting swiftly to arrest perpetrators of such cowardly attacks.
At the time we went to press last evening, it had not yet been made clear what the motive was in the mind(s) of the person or persons who planted the bomb at the Mwanza church.
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