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Two killed in second explosion in Uganda since weekend

Monday October 25 2021
Swift bus

A bus belonging to Swift Safaris Bus Company on which an explosion killed two people in Mpigi District on October 25, 2021. PHOTO | DAILY MONITOR | NMG

By MONITOR
By AFP

Two people were on Monday evening killed while several others were injured in a bus explosion in Uganda, the second attack in two days.

The bus belonging to Swift Safaris Bus Company under registration number UAU 989T was travelling from the capital Kampala to Bushenyi in western Uganda.

Police spokesperson Fred Enanga said the incident happened in Mpigi District in central Uganda at around 5pm.

A team of bomb experts was dispatched to Lungala, about 35km from the capital, along the Kampala-Masaka highway where the explosion occurred. 

"Two people have died and several were injured when an explosion went off in one of our buses from Kampala to western Uganda this evening," Mr Enanga said in a statement.

He added that wounded people were being evacuated from the area. 

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"The scene has been cordoned off pending a thorough assessment and investigation by the bomb experts. We shall periodically give updates surrounding the incident."

Mr Enanga gave no more detail on the suspected causes of the explosion.

The initial toll of two dead and several injured was confirmed by a manager of Swift Safaris.

The remaining 37 other passengers were safe plus the driver.

But President Yoweri Museveni said only one person died and it may have been an individual handling a bomb.

"The police are investigating whether the person blown up was the one carrying the bomb or not," the president tweeted.

"Preliminary reports say that the blast was from the seat and it killed only that person and injured the one who was sitting behind," he added.  

Restaurant bombing

The blast happened just hours after the Islamic State claimed responsibility for a deadly weekend bombing at a restaurant in Komamboga, a northern suburb  in Kampala that police called an 'act of domestic terrorism.'

Police said the crude bomb left underneath a table killed one person and injured three others. 

Earlier this month, both Britain and France updated their travel advice, saying terrorists were "very likely to try and carry out attacks in Uganda" and urging vigilance in crowded areas.

Read: UK issues Uganda terror alert

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