Austin: 6th blast rattles authorities; expert fears something big coming

A fresh explosion - the sixth overall - took place at a store in Goodwill in Austin city in Texas, US, on Tuesday evening, leaving the authorities and security agencies completely baffled. According to a report in The Telegraph, a former FBI adviser feared that these bombings could well be the precursor to a bigger attack, adding more to the authorities' worry. The local police were frantically searching for clues as possibilities of more blasts loomed largely.

President Donald Trump reacted after the sixth blast calling the perpetrator "sick" and that the bombings in Austin were "terrible". He said all resources were being pulled to trace the culprit(s).

That the Austin Police Department was under immense pressure to come to terms with the challenge was seen from a tweet posted by it. The department said it had responded to 420 suspicious package calls in 12 hours between March 19 and 20 and that meant they have got 1,257 calls since the morning of March 12!

"Latest blast not linked to previous ones"

The police later said in another tweet that the latest explosion was caused by "an incendiary device" and it was not a bomb. They also said that there was little possibility of the blast being linked to the earlier package bombs.

Two lives have been lost while four others seriously injured in the blasts that have been rocking the popular city since March 2.

Pointing to something big?

Randall Rogan, a professor at Wake Forest University who had worked with the FBI on the Unabomber case which saw the killing of three persons between 1978 and 1995 in a nationwide bombing spree, felt the nature of the fourth blast which took place last Sunday could point at something bigger coming. An expert on forensic linguistic analysis, Rogan said the brains behind these explosions could soon contact the police or reveal an agenda.

The investigators were also keeping a tab on a FedEx facility near Austin-Bergstrom Airport in Austin over a suspicious package call which came in around five hours after a device detonated in yet another FedEx facility in Schertz, around 65 miles south-west from Austin.

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