One person killed in possible terror attack at fertility clinic
One person has been killed after an explosion at a fertility clinic in California.
Authorities are investigating a possible terrorist plot after a blast ripped through the American Reproductive Services building in Palm Springs shortly before 11am local time on Saturday.
Images of the scene show shattered glass and debris strewn across the street outside of the clinic. Black smoke can be seen rising from the building while firefighters battle to put out the flames.
The explosion left one person dead, the mayor said, without confirming the name of the victim.
The blast is thought to have come from a car parked outside the fertility clinic and IVF lab on North Indian Canyon Drive.
The make and model of the vehicle is unknown, and all that was left of it at the scene was an axel, according to reports.
'We've got a vehicle that appears to have exploded,' Lt William Hutchinson of the Palm Springs Police Department said. 'It appears that we have a deceased person…Everything's in question whether this is an act of terrorism, or what it is.'
The FBI released a statement saying it was responding to the incident by deploying investigators and bomb technicians.
Ron DeHarte, the Palm Springs mayor, said he believed one person had been killed in the explosion.
'We're still trying to determine a cause,' the mayor told The New York Post.
'The police and fire [services] are down there right now. First, we heard it might be a helicopter crash or a gas leak but that's been ruled out. We should know pretty quickly what it was. There was quite a bit of damage to surrounding buildings as well.'
A witness said the explosion felt like 'a bomb went off'.
'It definitely felt like an explosion. It was so loud it felt like it shook my entire core,' Claudio Chavez, who owns an upholstery shop nearby, told the newspaper.
'I was inside my business waiting for a client. I was sitting in my chair and it was like suddenly like a bomb went off. Inside I just saw pieces of debris fall from the ceiling. Walked outside and saw my front window had totally shattered.
'I went to Palm Canyon Drive and went behind and off Indian Canyon you could see more people and a large amount of smoke. Half of one building seemed to have been blown off.'
The clinic's website listed fertility treatments, such as in vitro fertilization and egg freezing, among its services.
Dr Maher Abdallah, who runs the clinic, told The Associated Press that the clinic's office was damaged, but the IVF lab and stored embryos were not.
'I really have no clue what happened,' Dr. Abdallah said. 'Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients.'
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