Explosive device goes off in a bank in Budapest

A bomb exploded in the early hours on Monday at a bank in Budapest, demolishing the façade and smashing windows in the area but causing no injuries. Police said they were looking for a motorcyclist who drove off from the scene.

The device is believed to have been gone off at 4.18 a.m., ripping off a large part of the wall of the building in which the CIB bank branch is located in the capital’s 13th district. The blast threw the door of the branch over to the other side of the street.

Press reports say that homeless people were told to leave the site before the blast, which suggests that the perpetrator(s) wanted to damage the property only - in an area where the branches of several banks are located next to each other.

It is believed that the device was placed inside the entry hall area of the branch accessible 24 hours a day as an ATM is placed there. As index.hu reported, the perpetrator(s) could have ignited the explosion remotely with a mobile phone before leaving the scene on a motorbike.

Police gave no indication of any possible motive for the attack. Since there is an anti-bank sentiment in Hungary – even government officials blame banks at times -, mainly arising from the mounting burden of FX debtors, rumors started to spread that the explosion was motivated by this sentiment but nobody has yet taken responsibility for the action.