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Three Dead At Concert Bombing
A grenade explosion killed two teenagers (16, 18 years old) and a toddler (14 months) during the festivities on Madagascar’s independence day June 26.
Photo: AP Photo / Jeanne Richard
A person is treated at a public hospital in Antananarivo, Madagascar, June 27 after an explosion at a stadium.
Close to 100 people were injured. The grenade went off during a free concert, celebrating the 56th anniversary of the island country’s independence from France. The government of Madagascar, led by President Hery Rajaonarimampianina, was quick to call the incident a terrorist attack, although the identity of the perpetrator(s) has yet to be ascertained.
Business-standard.com quoted a teenager who was on site and said that there were three security checks at the stadium, “so I can’t understand how the attacker managed to get the bomb in.” A medical source is also quoted, saying that “security forces had rapidly been overwhelmed, letting people come and go without being searched.”
Two years ago, during President Rajaonarimampianina’s inauguration, a grenade went off in front of the same stadium, the Mahamasina municipal stadium in Antananarivo, the country’s capital. It cost the life of a toddler and injured several others.