Blast rocks Belconnen shopping centre

An explosion in the Westfield Belconnen Mall injured two men and left Christmas shoppers in shock yesterday.

A 30-year-old man suffered burns and injuries to his legs after the shopping bag he was carrying, which was full of cap gun ammunition, detonated in the crowded food court just after 1pm.

The force of the explosion shattered the front of a Donut King outlet and left the scene scattered with confetti and cash.

Intensive care paramedics treated a second man for injuries to his face and another four people were assessed at the scene.

Giralang woman Amanda Gillespie was standing at a nearby cafe when she heard the explosion.

The trained first aid officer ran to help after spotting a man crouching with torn jeans, covered in explosive residue and suffering shock.

”The loudness of the explosion was just shocking,” she said.

”It was definitely an explosion, with the impact of noise and smoke. It broke the glass nearby.”

Another witness, Simon, said the explosion happened within 2m of the Donut King store.

”I just wanted to get my kids out of there,” Simon said.

”We were sitting down about 5m away when the explosion happened – it sounded like a chandelier dropping.”

ACT Policing could not confirm the reason for the detonation, but Sergeant Steve Booth said police investigations would continue to ensure it was not ”untoward or malicious”.

”It’s certainly unusual,” he said.

”We will be conducting a full investigation into the matter to determine exactly why this has happened and if there is any reasonable cause for it.”

Sergeant Booth commended the response of centre management and said it was fortunate that no one else was injured considering the high level of shopper traffic.

”This has occurred during the lunch time period inside a very busy shopping centre during Christmas time, so there were quite a number of people in the area,” he said. STAFF REPORTERS

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