The Most Destructive in a Series of Fatal Incidents Catastrophe at the “City Center” [Archives:1999/35/Front Page]
August 30 1999
It is a huge, thought to be, TNT explosion that destroyed “City Center”. The supermarket that we knew as the biggest and most excellent supermarket we had in Yemen.
We see ourselves as lucky, that were able to get this rare photo. Simply, because all this mess has been cleared up by the authorities. If you visit the place now, you would only see an open and empty piece of land. It was our mission to show our readers the true dimensions of this explosion, and here you see it in front of you; a once unexcelled, and now destroyed supermarket.
Front Page and Report PAge will give you a clearer idea of the true dimension of this catastrophe.
SANA’A: It was a huge boom that shook the capital city last Saturday around 2:00 am in the famous “City Center” Supermarket on Haddah Street.
The supermarket was the biggest in Yemen and the most widely known market by most foreign diplomats and most foreigners residing in Sana’a. The explosion has also caused damage to the windows, doors, and other equipment of many nearby buildings, including the Yemen Times premises which is approximately 400 meters away from the site of the explosion. Officials claim that only two died in the incident, while the confirmed deaths were three, namely, the supermarket owner, Abdullah Al-Omeiry, and the guardsmen of the Sinan Abu Luhum Villa and Canadian Occidental Petroleum Building, Al-Hashidy and Al-Samawi. The number of injured according to official sources is 12. However, other sources claim that the actual number is higher than 22.
Unconfirmed reports say that the number of deaths is actually 9 because 6 of the employees in the supermarket are thought to have been sleeping in the underground floor, where they were charred as a result of the fire that kept on burning for several hours after the explosion. The firemen worked hard until the early morning to control the flames.
Some sources say that Al-Omeiry received a telephone call around 20 minutes before the blast. After the call, he and his son went to the supermarket to do some paperwork. Al-Omeiry left his son waiting in the car. In the market, Al-Omeiry met with his accountant to work on the salary records. Yemen Times interviewed that accountant, who is a relative of the owner, at the Police Hospital (Al-Shurta). But unfortunately, the cassette and film were taken away by the security of the hospital with the excuse that investigations were underway.
Minutes after Al-Omeiry went into the building, the explosion took place. The Associate Press news agency stated that the explosion was caused by a car bomb, while other sources say that a number of bombs (probably dense TNT) were placed in 4 sensitive locations in the building, beside the car bomb which exploded first. Some reports state that there are indications that some of the workers had placed the bombs in the sensitive areas of the building during the working hours on Friday. Police inspectors could not confirm or comment on these reports stating that investigations are still underway. Official sources were only stressing that the initial inspections show that the incident had criminal intentions and not politically motivated in any way. They stated that the investigations will continue. Read more
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