Explosion rocks gurudwara in Germany; 3 injured

Berlin

Eyewitnesses have spoken of 'a kind of bomb' that exploded at the entrance of the gurudwara around 7 pm local time yesterday where a wedding had taken place.

Reacting to the incident, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said the Indian mission is following it up with German authorities.

"Distressed to hear of an explosion in a gurudwara in Essen in Germany. Our Mission is following up with local authorities on ground situation," he tweeted.

A 60-year-old suffered serious injuries and had to be hospitalised while two 47- and 56-year-old men had minor injuries, the Bild newspaper reported but did not specify if all of them were Sikhs.

The injured included a priest on whom the whole pane of glass had fallen due to the impact.

A police spokesman said that the explosion was probably caused deliberately.

A masked man wearing dark clothes fled in an SUV, according to several witnesses from the scene.

A part of the wedding party was still in the building, the other part in the adjacent ballroom. The explosion was so violent that windowpanes of adjacent buildings were broken.

The building was heavily damaged, the report said.

Three men were arrested following the explosion over suspicion that they were in the black SUV, which had previously been seen in the vicinity of the crime scene.