Police in the Latvian capital of Riga believe that two bombs that ripped through a shopping centre in the city centre on Thursday may have been politically motivated.
However, the authorities acknowledged yesterday that the explosions, the latest in a succession of such attacks since Latvia gained independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991, could have been the work of mafia-style gangsters engaged in an internal feud.
Some 24 people were injured, three of them seriously, when the bombs exploded at about 5.30 p.m. on Thursday in the crowded, five-storey Centrs shopping centre in Riga's medieval Old Town. The bombs were placed in a parcel depot at the entrance to a supermarket on the ground floor of the complex, which is owned by a Norwegian company.
Among the injured was Mr Valdis Pumpers, the head of Latvia's criminal police, but detectives do not believe that he was the target of the attack, for which no warning was given.
Although Latvia has suffered dozens of bomb attacks during the past decade, this is the first time such an explosion took place during shop opening hours.
Four people were injured in the Estonian capital of Tallinn in May when two bombs exploded in a Finnish-owned department store.
Police believe that most of the earlier bomb attacks in Riga were carried out by gangsters involved in turf wars but they point out that no previous attack appeared aimed at killing or maiming innocent citizens.
First opened in the 1920s and renovated since Latvian independence, Centrs is Riga's most popular shopping centre, with restaurants, bars and a fitness centre as well as dozens of smart shops.
The bombs went off at a time when the supermarket on the ground floor was at its most crowded.
The police have not identified any specific terrorist group they suspect of carrying out the attack.
