GERMANY: A suspected bomb exploded in a residential building in the German city of Cologne yesterday, injuring at least 17 people, one of them critically.
Authorities said they could not rule out a terrorist link to the explosion in the city's Mülheim district, which has a large Turkish population. However, motives might be found in other areas, such as organised crime.
Unconfirmed reports suggested the bombing was a revenge attack or settling of scores.
Germany, like the rest of Europe, has been on high alert for bomb attacks by Islamic militants since Madrid train bomb blasts that killed 191. So far the country, which has a large Muslim population, has been spared an attack.
Emergency services said 14 men and three women were hurt, and that four of the men had serious injuries. One of them was in critical condition.
Police evacuated 20 buildings after the blast.
A German security source told Reuters: "It could be organised crime . . . it could be a Turkish action because the area is Turkish. Or it could be Islamist." Cologne, Germany's fourth-largest city, has large Turkish and Kurdish communities.
It is also home to radical Islamist preacher Metin Kaplan. A court decided last month that Kaplan, the head of a militant Islamist group, could be extradited to his native Turkey to face treason charges but he is fighting this in the courts.
- (Reuters)