Austin first responders said Sunday night that the city had been hit by another suspicious explosion — the fourth such incident since the start of March — and that two people had been hurt.
According to the Twitter account of both the Austin-Travis County EMS, and the Austin Police, there was an explosion in the 4800 block of Dawn Song Drive, in the Texas state capital.
“Two male patients transported with unknown injuries,” the police department said.
The EMS account tweeted out that the men, both in their 20s, were taken to the hospital “w/serious, but not expected to be life-threatening injuries.”
At a press conference around 11:30 p.m. EDT, interim Chief of Police Brian Manley advised people to stay in doors, in part because there was “a second item in the area, a backpack,” that looked suspicious and that police were trying to neutralize.
“Stay inside your homes until we have a chance to deem this neighborhood safe and that will not be at a minimum until daylight given the darkness and size of the area,” he said.
Stan Malachowski told TV station KXAN that he heard the explosion, but it wasn’t obvious what it was.
“It was loud enough to hear inside of our house with our windows and door shut. Again, airplanes go by and cars backfire so we didn’t think much of it,” he told the NBC affiliate.
According to the local Fox affiliate, the FBI and ATF are already on the scene Sunday night to assist the investigation.
Austin EMS had initially reported two explosions — at the correct address and another just a one-minute walk away in the southwest Austin neighborhood — and up to eight “patients ’on the ground’.”
The three package explosions before Sunday had killed two people and wounded two others.
Earlier in the day Sunday, the Austin Police Department and federal authorities announced that the reward money for information in the case had increased to $100,000.
Austin PD had asked that the person responsible come forward.
“We want to understand what brought you to this point and we want to listen to you,” Chief Manley told reporters then.
Mr. Malachowski noted that the previous explosions had occurred in different parts of the city.
“It’s not just an east Austin thing, or north Austin thing, it’s now southwest Austin. This is not good,” he told KXAN.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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