SANTIAGO (Reuters) - A bomb blast at a fast-food restaurant next to an underground train station in the Chilean capital of Santiago injured eight people on Monday.
"At 1400 (1700 GMT) an explosive device was detonated in the center (mini-mall) by the metro station, and at the moment investigations are being carried out to determine the origin," said Mario Rozas, head of police communications.
The blast occurred at lunchtime in a small shopping and eating area next to the Escuela Militar metro station in the affluent residential and shopping neighborhood of Las Condes.
Two people were seriously injured, a firefighter said, while several others suffered hearing losses. A local official at the scene said one of those injured was from Argentina.
"This is an act that has all the hallmarks of a terrorist deed," said Alvaro Elizalde, a cabinet minister and government spokesman.
"There is no doubt. And it has been carried out with the intention of hurting innocent people."
The government will invoke anti-terrorism laws, added Elizalde. The laws give prosecutors more powers and allow for harsher sentencing.
Interior Minister Mahmud Aleuy said police believed two suspects who planted the device escaped in a car.
No group has yet to claim responsibility.
"I was having lunch, I felt the noise and we went out to see and we saw a lot of smoke, people running and shouting," said Joanna Magneti, who works in the shopping center.
"A young man was badly wounded, a lady had her hand wounded," she said.
This week Chile commemorates the 41st anniversary of the 1973 military coup that removed socialist President Salvador Allende from power. The events of the coup still deeply divide Chilean society, and the anniversary is traditionally a time of protests that often turn violent.
A number of explosive devices have been planted close to banks and police stations in Chile in recent years.
In the past, one member of an anarchist group has been killed and another injured trying to set off explosive devices, but no bystanders have been hurt.
In July, an incendiary device exploded on an underground train without causing injuries.
The metro was operating normally after the explosion although the Escuela Militar station was closed, police said.
(Reporting by Felipe Iturrieta, Fabian Cambero and Anthony Esposito; Writing by Rosalba O'Brien; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Jeffrey Benkoe)
