More than 30 people, including several minors, were injured in a nightclub bombing in Peru.
The incident took place at Dali nightclub in the province of Trujillo along Peru’s northern coast on Saturday, March 7, at about 4 a.m. local time, per a translated media release from the Regional Government of La Libertad.
It is not immediately clear who was responsible for the explosion or what the motive for the attack was at this time.
Among the injured were a 16-year-old-female, a 17-year-old female and a 17-year-old male, per a chart containing victim information included in the statement. Three victims — including the 17-year-old girl — were treated in the shock trauma unit, which is dedicated to treating critically injured patients.
Gerardo Florián Gómez, the executive director of the Trujillo Health Network, told reporters that some of the victims have undergone amputations and suffered shrapnel wounds that required surgery, per PBS News and The Guardian.
Witnesses who were at the nightclub during the explosion described fear and chaos during the moments following the blast, which occurred while a band was playing, per local news outlet La República.
“I was enjoying the night with my friends when suddenly we saw something fall … Everything went blurry. My nose started bleeding horribly,” Jherson Morales Haro, 26, who was injured in the explosion, told the outlet.
“We all ran out. All five [people] in the group are hospitalized,” he added.
“All the [musical] equipment shut down. I was in the middle of the club. Glass shards got into my leg, and I have stitches in my abdomen from the shrapnel,” another woman said while speaking to the outlet.
The Regional Government of La Libertad “strongly” condemned the violence in a translated statement regarding the incident. They also expressed “solidarity with the victims of the criminal act.”
The regional government additionally called on local police to strengthen preventive patrols and increase police presence in critical areas of the city. They also urged local nightclubs to increase internal security measures, including implementing metal detectors and active video surveillance systems.
The explosion occurred in the wake of an increase in organized crime in the region, per PBS News. Another explosion in the same city damaged 25 homes — though it resulted in no injuries or fatalities — less than a month before the recent nightclub blast, per the outlet.
