By Andrei Makhovsky
MINSK (Reuters) - About 50 people were wounded early onFriday by a home-made bomb that sprayed nuts and bolts into acrowd at an open-air concert in Belarus's capital attended bylong-time ruler President Alexander Lukashenko, officials said.
Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet state with an irongrip since the mid-1990s, was not far from the blast but wasunhurt and did not appear to have been the target, hisspokesman said.
A second, unexploded bomb had been found near the blastsite, the Interior Ministry said. Police said its discoveryshould help their investigation.
The bomb went off in a big square in Minsk shortly aftermidnight (10 p.m. British time on Thursday), while thousandswere attending the concert marking Independence Day.
A Reuters witness said the explosion left a pit 20 cms (8inches) deep with blood splattered on the grass around it.
The Interior Ministry said three of the 50 injured were ina serious condition and doctors said they had treated dozens ofpeople to remove shrapnel from their legs.
The injured were mainly young people, though they includedat least two small children aged 5 and 6.
Presidential spokesman Pavel Legkiy told Reuters Lukashenko"reached the site of the explosion within several minutes".
"This was not an attempted assassination on the president,"he said.
"That is my personal opinion, not as a specialist, but as aperson who was at the scene ... Of course there can be a numberof explanations and the truth will be established in the courseof the investigation."
Officials said the blast was an act of "hooliganism" -- aterm commonly used by officials in ex-Soviet states to playdown an incident's significance.
There has been no known attempt on Lukashenko's life.
"I heard a loud explosion and there was black smoke," said28-year-old Sergey, who did not give his second name.
"People started shouting. No one stopped the concert. Theyjust isolated the place around the explosion and emergencyvehicles began coming."
CHILDREN, YOUTHS INJURED
The top doctor at a hospital which treated 31 of theinjured said injuries were mostly caused by shrapnel in thelegs.
"The condition of the majority is satisfactory," he said."We undertook 26 operations to remove nuts and bolts.Unfortunately, the majority of the injured were youths."
In 2005, a home-made explosive device wounded more than 40people in the northern city of Vitebsk. A little known, anti-Lukashenko group, The Belarussian National Liberation Armylater claimed responsibility but no one was convicted.
The opposition said it was worried the blast could be usedagainst them.
The liberal United Civic Party called on authorities "torefrain from the temptation to use the incident to conductparliamentary election campaign under emergency conditions andto organise a crusade against political opponents."
The West has accused Lukashenko, a close Russian ally, ofgagging independent media, quelling protests and incarceratingopponents. The European Union and the United States have bannedhim from entry, saying he rigged his re-election in 2006.
Lukashenko argues he has helped save Belarus from thepolitical and economic chaos of other ex-Soviet states andremains broadly popular in the country of 10 million, wedgedbetween Russia and Poland.
Some EU states have said that a fair election, due inSeptember, could transform relations with Minsk, but thecontinued imprisonment of an academic who ran againstLukashenko in the 2006 poll remains the key stumbling bloc forbetter ties.
(Reporting by Andrei Makhovsky; writing by Sabina Zawadzki;Editing by Richard Balmforth)
