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Israeli blast hurts 14; police suspect accident

15 July 2011 23:45 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. An explosion which ripped through a building in the Israeli city of Netanya north of Tel Aviv on Friday igniting a fire and injuring 14 people was likely caused by accident, police said, APA reports quoting Reuters
Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police suspected the blast was "accidental or the result of a technical problem" rather than the work of criminals or Palestinian militants who have not carried out attacks in the area for some time.
He had earlier said police were investigating all possibilities, including a possible terrorist motive.
"We heard a huge explosion and then saw flames leaping from the building and a mushroom cloud of smoke," the Ynet news website quoted a witness, Rani Kortzan, as saying.
Police said a blaze caused by the Netanya explosion was extinguished a short while later and 14 people had been injured, most of them foreign workers who sustained light to moderate injuries.
The victims lived above the restaurant which was shut for the Jewish sabbath at the time of the blast.
Shahar Ayalon, a chief firefighter, said the blast was likely caused by either an electrical short-circuit or a gas leak.
Netanya, a Mediterranean seaside resort town which is home to many immigrant groups, has been the scene of numerous shootings and explosions in recent years, often blamed on rivalries among criminal gangs.
The city has also been the site of deadly attacks by Palestinian militants, the worst of which took place in 2002 when a suicide bomber killed dozens in a hotel on a Jewish holiday. Israel retaliated with deadly raids on militant hideouts in parts of the occupied West Bank.