Police hunt for suspects after blasts at Washington retail outlets

WASHINGTON – Police in Washington are offering a reward of up to US$20,000 (S$27,000) for information that could lead to the arrest of those involved in three explosions within a 15-minute span at retail outlets in the United States capital on Sunday.

No one was killed or injured in the early-hour blasts in Washington’s North-east neighbourhood, but all three places were damaged, the police said in a statement. In one of the blasts, someone threw “a Molotov cocktail-style object” at a Safeway store before fleeing in a vehicle, the police said.

The other two explosions took place outside an ATM and in front of a Nike store. All of the establishments were closed at the time.

It was not immediately clear how many suspects the police were looking for, but officials released an image of one suspect and of a vehicle that could have been used in the attack.

The suspect’s back was turned to the surveillance camera in that image, and the face was not visible. The suspect seemed to be wearing a white jacket or hoodie. The car was described as a champagne-coloured Acura TL with a Maryland licence plate.

As with other big US cities,

Washington has experienced a spike in crime in recent years.

In an editorial column in 2022, The Washington Post said the regularity of violence and crime in Washington was “alarming” and posed a “serious problem”.

By the first week of June, more than 100 people had been killed in the US capital in 2023, the fastest it has hit the mark in two decades.

Sunday’s explosions appeared to be targeted at commercial establishments and not at any members of the public, the police said. REUTERS