Austin package bombs might be linked to other fatal attack

Two package bomb blasts a few miles apart killed a teenager and wounded two women in Austin on Monday, less than two weeks after a similar attack left a man dead in another part of the city.

Investigators said the bombings are probably connected, and they are looking into whether race was a factor because all of the victims were minorities.

The attacks unfolded just as the Texas capital was swelling with visitors to the South By Southwest music festival.

The first of Monday’s attacks killed a 17-year-old boy and wounded a 40-year-old woman, both of them black. As Police Chief Brian Manley held a news conference to discuss that blast, authorities were called to the scene of another explosion that injured a 75-year-old Hispanic woman.

Authorities suspect both of Monday’s blasts were linked to a March 2 attack that killed a 39-year-old black man.