A powerful bomb that ripped through a vehicle in Ħamrun yesterday morning could have gone off by accident, investigators believe.

The device exploded just after 9.35 a.m., slightly injuring three passers-by.

Pupils at Our Lady Immaculate School, just a corner away, had been in their classrooms for an hour when the blast made them jump out of their seats. So powerful was the explosion that the car’s door ended up on the roof of a house across the road while a seat was catapulted over another house on the opposite side and landed in a yard at the back.

Debris went flying in all directions, with pieces of the car ending up as far as the entrance of the school, approximately 70 metres away. The blast was heard from as far as Birkirkara. Several houses had their window panes shattered but a van parked next to the vehicle that exploded survived with a shattered windscreen.

The vehicle was a red Fiat Fiorino owned by Keith Galea, a former prison inmate who was released a few days ago. He had parked his car in front of a disused garage in Canon Bonnici Street, a few doors up from where his parents live.

Mr Galea missed the blast by only a few minutes as he had just arrived, parked and walked up to his parents’ house.

An explosives expert said the signs were the explosive device was inside the vehicle rather than underneath it, as is common with planted car bombs. Otherwise the damage caused would have been completely different.

In fact, investigators are pursuing two theories: that the bomb inside the vehicle and went off accidentally or that someone broke into the vehicle and placed the bomb there with the intention of killing Mr Galea.

Police sources said Mr Galea was questioned yesterday.

People who live nearby expressed shock yesterday morning. Doris Fenech, who lives about 50 metres away, said she had walked along the same pavement just 10 minutes before when she went shopping from the grocery store.

Others expressed relief that the bomb had not exploded earlier when the place would have been full of children going to school.

Members of the Civil Protection Department, personnel from the Armed Forces explosives section and several policemen arrived on the scene within minutes, cordoning off the area and taking note of the damage.

Last car bomb

The last recorded car bomb occurred 10 years ago and killed a man in Marsascala.

In 2001, a bomb placed under a Volvo exploded and killed Stephen Said, 29, the barman of the St Julians Labour Party club.

The last bomb explosion, however, took place in December 2010 when a device was placed on a window of Transport Malta offices in Sa Maison, injuring officials Major Peter Ripard and Konrad Pulé.