Two grenades exploded outside a bank and a hospital in the Ethiopian capital early Monday, causing property damage but no deaths or injuries, police said.
ADDIS ABABA: Two grenades exploded outside a bank and a hospital in the Ethiopian capital early Monday, causing property damage but no deaths or injuries, police said.
The blasts, which were not claimed by any group and for which authorities offered no explanation, followed disturbances last week during religious ceremonies in which at least two people were killed and 36 injured, including police, they said. "Two grenades have exploded in two parts of the town after midnight last night," the Ethiopian Federal Police said in a statement read on national radio. "No one has been injured or killed but there has been significant property damage."
"Police are investigationg who is behind these explosions as well as their motives," it said.
The first explosion took place shortly after midnight near the Addis Ababa Commerical Bank in the western part of the city and destroyed shutters and windows at the neighbouring Assab Hotel, police officials said.
The second occured about three kilometres away in the center of the city near the Black Lion Hospital, shattering the windows of a nearby medical school, they said.
The grenade explosions and last week's unrest come amid continuing tension over disputed elections last year and a government crackdown on the opposition initiated in November after the second of two eruptions of deadly violence in the capital.
In June and November, at least 84 people were killed during skirmishes when police opened fire on crowds during demonstrations against alleged fraud in the May 15 polls.
Several thousand people, mainly leaders and supporters of the main opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CID), were rounded up after the November violence and currently 131 senior CUD officials, journalists and others face treason and other charges relating to an alleged coup plot.
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