Grenades kill 18 at rally in Bangladesh
Former Bangladeshi prime minister targeted, opposition party says
DHAKA, Bangladesh (CNN) -- Several grenades exploded near former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as she spoke at a party rally Saturday, killing at least 18 people and wounding hundreds, police and witnesses said.
An official with the opposition Awami League party, led by Hasina, said the former prime minister was the target. Hasina was not injured, party officials said.
Video showed Hasina standing on the low stage, closely surrounded by party officials and journalists with hundreds of supporters crowded nearby.
The first grenade exploded just in front of the stage near TV cameras set up to record the rally.
As the crowd stampeded down streets away from the initial blast, other explosions were heard.
Police said at least six grenades detonated and one was found unexploded.
The rally was being held on a street near the Awami League's Dhaka headquarters.
Witnesses reported seeing many people being taken to hospitals.
"People were covered with blood, many injured were crying for help," Mohamamd Yasin, a rickshaw driver near the scene of the blasts, told The Associated Press.
"It was so ghastly and so terrible that I've no words to describe," said Farook Khan, an opposition lawmaker who was standing close to Hasina.
He estimated that at least 15,000 people were at the rally when the explosions happened.
Doctors at Dhaka's state-run hospital appealed for blood and said they were overwhelmed with the arrival of so many injured people.
Hundreds of relatives thronged outside the hospital to look for their loved ones. Many of the injured arrived at hospitals in slow-moving rickshaws.
Angry opposition supporters smashed or burned dozens of passing vehicles to protest the attack. Police fired tear gas to disperse the rampaging crowd, witnesses said.
Police and paramilitary troops patrolled the streets in central Dhaka as protesters took to the streets shouting anti-government slogans.
The rally was called to protest a series of bomb blasts early this month that killed two people, including an opposition supporter, in the northeastern city of Sylhet.
Journalist Tasneem Khalil in Dhaka contributed to this story
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
