Fourth explosion this month injures two in Austin

AUSTIN, Texas – An explosion tore through a quiet Southwest Austin neighborhood Sunday night, sending two men to the hospital with serious injuries and heightening worries that a serial package bomber is targeting the city’s residents.

Shortly before 9 p.m., an explosion rocked a neighborhood north of Southwest Parkway near the Mopac Boulevard (Loop 1) interchange, sparking the closure of several streets and bringing a massive law enforcement contingent of Austin police and FBI agents to the neighborhood. Officers planned to carefully inspect the neighborhood throughout the night for clues and other suspicious objects. Around 11 p.m., police closed an area near Dawn Song Drive to check out a suspicious backpack left near the scene of the explosion.

Austin interim Police Chief Brian Manley urged anyone within a half-mile radius of Dawn Song Drive to stay inside or avoid the area until daylight. At a news conference near the scene, he told reporters that he was not going to take question “because we simply just don’t know anything at this time.”

Shortly after midnight, about 15 federal agents were walking side-by-side stretched across Travis County Circle near the entrance to the Travis Country subdivision shining flashlights on the road searching for clues.

At 1:30 a.m., Manley again addressed reporters and said it was possible that a trip-wire triggered the explosion, a departure from the three previous bombs that were all inside packages. Manley said investigators believe Sunday’s explosion was caused by a bomb and are operating under the assumption that it was connected to the three prior blasts.

Some neighbors reported they had been told the explosion was the result of a trip wire, but police would not confirm any details of the blast Sunday night.