FATAL BLAST

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33035, 30 September 1972, Page 9

FATAL BLAST

Diplomat escapes (N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) PHNOM PENH, Sept. 29. The acting United States Ambassador in Cambodia (Mr Thomas Enders) narrowly escaped death this week when his white limousine exploded a boobytrapped bomb in Phnom Penh.

He was not injured, but a cyclo-cab driver and one of Mr Ender's military police escorts were killed, and four civilians, including a small child, were seriously injured. Mr Enders was on his way from his home to the embassy at 7 a.m. when the bomb went off as his white Chevrolet Impala was passing Independence Monument Square.

Unconfirmed reports say that the bomb was hidden in a three-wheeled motor-cycle packed with charcoal, and the detonator connected to a wire strung across the road and hanging limply around the trunk of a tree.

Mr Enders, who is nearly seven feet tall, jumped from the car seconds before the blast. The limousine burst into flames and was destroyed. The bomb may have been meant for the Ambassador (Mr Emory Swank), who is at home on leave in the United States. He was the target of a similar attack on September 7, 1971, when terrorists planted a plastic bomb in the bicycle basket of a bread vendor, and left the bicycle in the middle of the road that Mr Swank normaly took to his office. The bomb failed to explode.