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Blast rocks Helsinki

HELSINKI: A suspected car bomb exploded in central Helsinki early on Friday, injuring one person and damaging nearby buildings, police said.

"There was a strong explosion," said a Finnish police spokesman, adding that it appeared to be a car bomb because vehicle parts were found among the debris.

He said a police station and a neighbouring court house were extensively damaged in the blast, which rocked the city over a radius of about 15 km

The blast occurred shortly after midnight when few people were on the streets in the largely administrative district of Pasila, said the spokesman.

Explosives apparently left in a car in a car park about 20 metres from the police station carved out a crater nearly two metres wide, police at the cordoned-off site told reporters.

They said the blast punched a hole through a wall of the police station.

Glass from shattered windows carpeted the area and the wreckage of a car littered the ground.

Witnesses spoke of a "pillar of fire" and a rising cloud of smoke soon after the blast.

A police officer suffered a slight hand injury but no one was killed, the police spokesman said.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blast.-Reuter