The German public was faced with a second horrific incident yesterday afternoon as nine people, including a pregnant woman, were seriously injured in an explosion at a Dusseldorf train station.
The woman, in her early 20s, lost her baby and also had to have a leg amputated, while another man is also in a critical condition with severe stomach injuries.
Seven other people were injured in the blast at the busy Wehrhahn suburban train station at 3 p.m. yesterday.
The explosion was caused by a bomb apparently placed at one end of a pedestrian footbridge in front of the station.
No warnings or threats were phoned in before the explosion, according to a police spokesman, Mr Andre Hartwich.
"So far we haven't found any note claiming responsibility," he said. A cheated lover may have planted the bomb, according to the police spokesman.
Mr Hartwich said police could not rule out that it concerned a "cheated lover". Police said they did not believe the attack was politically motivated, but were not ruling anything out.
Emergency services arriving on the scene reported that many of the wounded were unconscious and bleeding heavily.
"It was an explosive device, the result a criminal act," said a spokesman for the Dusseldorf fire service last night, ruling out accidental explanations such as a gas explosion.
"Our first impressions are that it was a bomb designed to produced a large number of shards and splinters. The actual shockwave it made appears to have been small," said the fire service spokesman.
The explosion appeared aimed at causing injury, not damage to the building, said Mr Joachim Schmitz of the Dusseldorf fire department.
The shards from the bomb consisted of pieces of metal and plastic. "It was like the bang of a hand grenade or a bomb explosion," said Mr Robert Schweds, who works at a kiosk outside the station.
"My whole body shook," said Mr Schendran Swaminathan, who runs a nearby pub.
Another eye witness said it sounded like two trains had collided.
The fire department said that the majority of the victims were not German, but it is unclear whether this is significant. It is not known if the person who planted the device was among the wounded.
Shortly after the blast, injured people fled from the station entrance, many bleeding.
Police and rescue officials arrived quickly at the station, in the centre of the western commercial city. A rescue helicopter was ferrying victims to hospitals.
Dusseldorf hospitals appealed for blood donations to help the injured.
The Deputy Premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, Mr Michael Vesper, who visited the scene, said he was "deeply shaken by this brutal attack". He added: "Whoever perpetrated it, wanted consciously to wound and kill people."
He said the regional government strongly condemned "this repulsive act" and expressed its sympathy for the victims.
All train traffic between Dusseldorf and neighbouring Duisburg, one of the busiest stretches in Germany, had to be suspended for more than 90 minutes, and train officials said delays were expected throughout the night.
A full police investigation has been started.
Nine people were injured in Hamburg last May when a grenade exploded in a packed discotheque. Police arrested a known figure in the city's drug scene a week later on suspicion of planting the grenade.
