ASTANA (Reuters) - An explosion occurred outside a holding cell operated by Kazakhstan's security services in the capital Astana on Tuesday, blowing out windows of nearby houses, local news agencies reported.
Interfax-Kazakhstan quoted unidentified witnesses as saying a car exploded outside the building at around 3:30 a.m. local time 10:30 p.m. British time), and that one or two people might have been inside the car at the time.
Interfax reported witnesses as having seen body fragments scattered at the scene, which they believed to have belonged to the occupant or occupants of the car. No injuries were reported among residents.
A local newspaper reporter, visiting the scene on Tuesday morning, told Reuters that windows had been shattered in the two-storey buildings that flank the security service building in the old part of the Kazakh capital.
The reporter said there appeared to be bloodstains at the scene, but that the car and other evidence of an explosion had been cleared away.
Novosti-Kazakhstan quoted a spokesman for the security services as saying a car caught fire and exploded. The spokesman did not answer calls from Reuters for further comment.
A suicide bomber wounded two bystanders in the northwestern Kazakh city of Aktobe on May 17. The prosecutor-general's office identified the bomber as a 25-year-old suspected criminal and said that the blast was not an act of terrorism.
(Reporting by Raushan Nurshayeva; Writing by Robin Paxton)
