A 12-year-old girl was killed when a man detonated an improvised explosive on the roof of her Lima home just above her bed.
The explosion occurred just before 3 a.m. this morning in a shantytown of Lima’s El Agustino district. The bomb was placed on the corrugated sheet-metal roof just above where the victim slept on the top of a bunk bed.
The victim’s older sister and her four-year-old son in the bottom bunk were unharmed.
The parents of the victim said they had not received any threats and the attack was not a product of extortion because the family does not earn much money. The father works as a security guard and the mother sells newspapers.
El Comercio reports that neighbors and family members believe the attack was perpetrated by the ex-boyfriend of the victim’s older sister, who had recently ended their relationship.
The news comes a week after a Lima police officer was killed in grenade attack at a school in Villa El Salvador, the latest in a rash of similar attacks which prompted the government to take steps to curb supply of grenades in black markets and evaluate harsher punishments for attacks with explosives.
Sources
Atentado con dinamita en El Agustino sería por venganza (El Comercio)
El Agustino: muere adolescente tras estallido de un explosivo (RPP)
El Agustino: Menor de 12 años murió tras la explosión de una granada que fue arrojada en su vivienda (Peru 21)