Tanzanian church blast kills one, wounds 57

DAR ES SALAAM: A suspected bomb attack on a new Catholic church in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha killed at least one person and wounded dozens of others yesterday, police said.
The Vatican’s ambassador to Tanzania, Archbishop Francisco Montecillo Padilla, was attending the official opening of the church when the explosion occurred, but escaped unharmed.
If a bomb blast is proven, it will mark an escalation in sectarian tensions in east Africa’s second biggest economy.
“Some kind of explosion went off at the church. It is believed to have been a bomb but we don’t know what type of bomb it was,” police spokesperson Advera Senso said.
One person was arrested after the blast, which killed a woman and wounded 57 other people, Senso said.
A Vatican embassy official said he had been in contact with Padilla. “He is personally fine,” the official said.
Two Christian leaders were killed in Tanzania’s semi-autonomous, predominantly Muslim islands of Zanzibar earlier this year and there have been attacks on Muslim leaders and mosques. Arusha lies near the snow-capped peak of Mount Kilimanjaro in a part of Tanzania that is predominantly Christian.
The newly built church, in the Olasti district on the outskirts of Arusha town, was celebrating its first ever mass when the blast took place, and people were squeezed into the church building as well as sitting on benches outside.
“When it exploded there was a stampede, people running in all directions, walking on each other, children were screaming and women crying,” said Viviana, who was helped out of the church by her son.
“I saw a dead woman trampled, I think even her two children were killed in the same way,” said a woman, who gave her name only as Mariana.
An AFP reporter said that several wounded people were taken to hospital, and that police had closed off roads around the church.
Worshippers angrily accused the police and the government of failing to properly protect them.
“There were so many people, the church was full, and the faithful were sitting on benches outside — it was a great day of celebration,” said Jacob, a motorcycle taxi driver, who had been at the mass.
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 Christian 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.