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Terrorism

Hungary arrests suspect over Budapest bombing

October 20, 2016

Anti-terror police have detained a Hungarian man suspected of detonating a nail bomb in downtown Budapest and seriously injuring two police officers on patrol. The man, who has no criminal record, appealed the detention.

https://p.dw.com/p/2RTWE
Ungarn Explosion in Budapest
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Z. Mihadak/MTI

The suspect was arrested in the southwest town of Keszthely on Thursday, almost four weeks after the Budapest bombing, according to Hungary's chief prosecutor Tibor Keresztes.

The attack was "a brutal and shocking act, which could have caused much greater damage," Keresztes said.

Ungarn Explosion in Budapest
Police blocked off the area after the blast damaged a shop on busy streetImage: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Z. Mihadak/MTI

According to the authorities, the man likely acted alone in the suspected terror blast. The investigators also found indications that the Hungarian citizen was planning new attacks. 

Keresztes said that the man had no previous criminal record, but refused to discuss the suspect's motive or provide more details about him. In the wake of the attacks, police described the suspect as a young male, between 20 and 25 years of age.

The arrested man appealed his detention on Thursday, Keresztes told reporters. He did not confess to the charges of attempted murder and abuse of explosives.

Attack on 'the entire police'

The homemade bomb exploded in a busy Budapest avenue on September 24, scattering shrapnel and nails and wounding two police officers, one male and one female.

Immediately after the blast, national police chief Karoly Papp said that the officials saw the blast as aimed against "the entire Hungarian police."

"Someone tried to execute my officers," Papp told the new conference.

The two injured police officers left hospital earlier this week.

dj/msh (Reuters, AP)