Explosion at Tim's

Not many details on this yet:

A man has died in an explosion at a Tim Hortons outlet in downtown Toronto on Sunday and the investigation has tied up traffic at one of the city's busiest intersections, police say.

The blast took place just after 1 p.m. EDT at the doughnut store, which is on Yonge Street near the intersection with Bloor Street.

Toronto Police Service Insp. Nick Memme said it was not known yet whether the victim was a customer or an employee.

Memme said the explosion occurred "in the washroom area" at the back of the shop.

Until there's evidence to suggest otherwise, I'm assuming this was an accident or, at most, the work of a lone nut. (If you wanted to carry out a high-profile terror attack in Toronto, a Tim's would have to rank pretty low on the list of targets.) But if terrorists are striking at our Tim Horton's outlets, the wrath of the Canadian people will come down on them hard.

Update: unconfirmed reports say a guy with explosives strapped to his chest walked in just before the explosion. If that's the case, the sole victim is almost certainly the bomber.

Update II: officials say it wasn't a suicide bombing:

Police have ruled out terrorism as the cause of an explosion at a Tim Hortons doughnut shop in a trendy downtown area of Toronto on Sunday, killing one man.

The victim was likely an arsonist or attempting suicide, Staff Sgt. Don Cole of Toronto police told reporters hours after the explosion.

"He's not a strap-on al-Qaeda bomber guy," Cole said. "It sounds to me like a guy who either wanted to do a torch job or commit suicide."

Police said the man apparently carried a can of gasoline into a washroom stall about 1 p.m. local time at the doughtnut shop in the city's Yorkville area, and set off a flash fire that killed him.

The victim was an unidentified male who was pronounced dead at the scene with severe burns to his body. Nobody else was injured.

Posted by damian at April 2, 2006 05:37 PM