07/02/2007

DVLA workers injured by letter bomb

Four employees at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency offices in Swansea have been injured by a parcel bomb.

The incident occurred around 9:30am on Wednesday morning. They were taken to hospital, where one woman remains being treated for injuries that include burns on her hands and cuts on her hands and body. Her condition is described as stable.

On Tuesday, two men suffered blast injuries to their hands and upper body in a letter bomb explosion at the offices of accountancy firm Vantis in Oaklands Business Centre in Wokingham.

Vantis is linked to Speed Check Services, which provides digital speed cameras to police.

On Monday, a woman was slightly injured by a letter bomb in the Capita building in Victoria Street in central London.

Capita runs London's congestion charge system.

On Wednesday, it also emerged that a 53-year-old man was injured by a letter bomb at his home in Folkestone in Kent on Saturday. He is understood to have collected his mail from a business address before he returned home to open it.

Three letter bombs were also sent to companies in the Oxfordshire and West Midlands areas last month.

In those cases, the companies had received an A5 jiffy bag containing a crude firework-type explosive device.

Two of them ignited, slightly injuring one woman.

It is understood that all the companies provided forensic services for the criminal justice system and police and, according to reports, they are not so far being linked to the latest attacks.

(KMcA/SP)

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