At least 30 wounded in blast at Tanzanian church

ARUSHA, Tanzania, May 5 – At least 30
people were injured, including three
seriously, in an explosion Sunday at a
church in the northern Tanzanian city of
Arusha, police said.
“There have been 30 people wounded,
three in a serious condition, and one
person has been arrested,” said regional
police chief Liberatus Sabas.
It was not immediately clear what caused the
explosion.
“This is a sad day, our security forces are
mobilised, and the culprits will be arrested
and brought to justice,” said Arusha’s
commissioner Magesa Mulongo.
“For the time being we don’t know if it is a
bomb,” he added.
The blast took place outside a Roman Catholic
church in Arusha, a town popular with
tourists visiting the nearby Serengeti national
park and snowcapped Mount Kilimanjaro.
An AFP reporter said that several wounded
people were taken to hospital, and that police
had closed off roads around the church.
Tensions have been high between Tanzania’s
Christian and Muslim communities in recent
months, although there was no indication of
what had caused Sunday’s explosion.
In February, a Catholic priest was shot dead
outside his church on the largely Muslim
archipelago of Zanzibar, the second such
killing in recent months. A church was also
set on fire on Zanzibar in February.
Last month, in the far south of Tanzania,
police fired tear gas to disperse around 200
Christians rioters attempting to torch a
mosque over an argument over who should
be allowed to slaughter animals.
Tanzanian foreign minister Bernard Membe
said in a message on Twitter that he was
“greatly shocked” at the news of the blast.