A seven-kilogram explosive charge was discovered in the Mahane Yehuda downtown market area of Jerusalem last night and defused by police and army sappers before it could explode. The bomb was hidden under sacks in a baby’s carriage left innocuously outside a bank. Two civil defense patrolmen, passing by became suspicious, lifted the sacks and then called police.
The bomb was made up of two cannisters, each containing 25 pounds of liquid gas under pressure attached to the explosive charge and set to a timing device, a wristwatch scheduled to go off at 3 o’clock, presumably this morning. The device was one of the largest found in Jerusalem in recent years and could have had devastating effects if it had exploded. Police have detained a number of people for questioning. The Mahane Yehuda market was the scene three years ago of a car bomb explosion which killed 12 people and wounded 40.
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