Israeli law enforcement officials are alarmed over a spreading wave of violence which has recently involved hand grenades and smoke bombs hurled by spectators at sports events and grenade attacks or threats at other public places.
A possible disaster was narrowly averted at the "Puerto Rico" coffee house in Eilat last night when a police officer wrested a grenade from a 19-year-old youth who was threatening to blow up the place. The young man, who came from Haifa, pulled the safety pin from the grenade after announcing that he intended to kill everybody, including himself.
The policeman managed to seize the grenade and de-activate it with an improvised pin. The young man was arrested by military police who are trying to find out how he came into possession of the grenade that was obviously stolen from an army supply depot.
The incident was similar to the grenade attack by a 21-year-old army deserter that took six lives and injured 20 persons in a Netanya discotheque two weeks ago. A week after that incident, another youth shot three companions to death in a Petach Tikva flat.
Discussing these episodes before the Engineering Club here. Police Chief Shaul Rosolio said that special plain-clothes units were being assigned to mingle with the spectators at sports events to prevent violence. He noted that at recent football and basketball games, referees had been assaulted by spectators and grenades and smoke bombs were hurled to the fields or courts.
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