MISSISSAUGA, Ontario — Investigators on Friday were looking for two people who detonated a pail filled with projectiles inside a crowded Indian restaurant near Toronto late Thursday, wounding 15 people, three of them critically. Chief Jennifer Evans of the Peel Regional Police called the bombing “horrendous,” but said there was no immediate indication that it was related to terrorism or a hate crime. The blast took place around 10:30 p.m. at the Bombay Bhel restaurant in Mississauga, Ontario, a large city just west of Toronto. Sgt. Matt Bertram said the assailants had entered the restaurant and put down what appeared to be a pail or a paint can, which then exploded as the two fled down the street. Rafael Concaceicao, a student from São Paulo, Brazil, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that he was on the patio of a nearby restaurant when he heard the explosion at Bombay Bhel. He rushed to help, he said.<doc-sep>One witness says he heard a huge explosion, before coming upon a chaotic scene of broken glass and bloodied diners at a Mississauga Indian restaurant late Thursday, while another spotted two men running away from the scene. Peel Regional Police allege two disguised men entered the Bombay Bhel restaurant, near a major Mississauga, Ont. intersection, planted an improvised explosive device and then fled. Moments later, at around 10:30 p.m. the device detonated, injuring at least 15 people. Nobody was killed, but when international student Rafael Conceicao raced to the scene from a nearby patio, he saw a number of people who were bleeding and one man who appeared to have glass lodged in his eye, he said. "Glass was broken in the street … everything was destroyed. Lots of blood in the floor," Concaceicao told CBC Toronto. "Many people were screaming. They were trying to run out from the restaurant." A woman comforts two children inside a Peel Regional Police cruiser in the moments after the explosion. (Tony Smyth/CBC) Paramedics wheeled a number of people away on stretchers. Others limped away. Amid the flashing lights, one woman comforted an infant in the back seat of a police cruiser. Neighbour spots 2 men running Shitan Yan was getting groceries from his car when he heard the blast and then saw two men dressed in hoodies run "like crazy" past him. Yan said both men appeared to be young, but he couldn't discern anything else about them. Investigators search for clues near the Bombay Bhel last month. (Martin Trainor/CBC) "They looked back for a while and then just kept running," he said. Yan said he didn't realize how serious the explosion was until he checked the news this morning, and police came to interview him about what he saw. Owners of 'loving restaurant' In a Facebook post, the restaurant's owners described the situation as "extremely horrific and sad." Mohan Nagpal, the restaurant's owner, and several members of his family were inside at the time of the blast, according to his son-in-law, Ilija Vasic. "They're OK," he said, adding Nagpal wants to gather his thoughts before addressing the tragedy in the media. Vasic said he has no idea why anyone would want to bomb what he calls a "loving restaurant." "It's surreal, to say the least," he said. Vasic was called to the restaurant last night, but said he didn't look at the destruction. Instead, he focused on helping police with the investigation. Major police response Andre Larrivee, who lives in a nearby condominium, was watching TV when he heard the blast. "It was really loud," he said, comparing it to the sound of an electric generator that had exploded at a nearby construction site recently. Bombay Bhel Restaurant Bombing - More Pics 2. #Mississauga pic.twitter.com/wDq7eD8P2A —@LateNightCam Jess Dalessandro pulled into the parking lot to go to a nearby Shoppers Drug Mart moments after the blast and watched as police and paramedics descended on the plaza at Hurontario Street and Eglinton Avenue East. She described a sense of calm among the chaos. "No one was freaking out," she said, adding many people in the plaza were suggesting it was just a minor kitchen explosion. The fact that it was a bomb, she said, is "terrifying." Dalessandro said she began realizing the seriousness of the incident as police quickly cordoned off the entire area and a tactical team rolled in. She said she heard one officer calling for a drone to be deployed. Officers still wouldn't let her move her truck out of the parking lot on Friday morning. Police haven't suggested a motive for the attack. Investigators were seen photographing footprints in a nearby subdivision that may belong to the two bombing suspects. Officers clad in white suits were also inspecting the restaurant's doorway.<doc-sep>“Investigators spent hundreds of hours over the weekend combing the scene for every fine detail that might help them to understand what happened that night,” he said. Police have finished processing the scene of the blast and are now analyzing a collection of evidence that includes fingerprints, DNA, surveillance video, interviews with people present at the restaurant that night and remnants of the explosive device itself, Ryan said. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. Peel Regional Police originally said both suspects seen on video entering the Bombay Bhel restaurant on Hurontario near Eglinton last week were men, but new video evidence and witness input suggests at least one of the suspects could be female, Supt. Rob Ryan said. MISSISSAUGA — One of two suspects wanted in connection with an explosion that injured 15 people at an Indian restaurant may be a woman, contrary to earlier reports, police said Tuesday. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content What led the two suspects to detonate this device is still not clear,” he added. “We do not have clear motive and no one has claimed responsibility.” The suspects were in and out of the restaurant in a short amount of time, and fled the scene on foot before their homemade explosive device detonated, police said. Investigators have traced the suspects’ escape route with drones and dogs, and believe the pair headed eastward from Bombay Bhel, cutting through a construction site and then a residential subdivision, Ryan said. Police have said they think the suspects ultimately got into a vehicle. Photo by Ernest Doroszuk / Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia Ryan said assistance from the community would be “critical” to the investigation, and urged anyone with information to contact police, whether they witnessed any part of what happened the night of the bombing, or know something about the suspects. “We know there are people out there who know who did this and it’s time for them to do the right thing and come forward,” Ryan said. Ryan said investigators still don’t know the motive for the attack, but said the suspects would be charged with attempted murder, among other offences, if caught. The fifteen people injured in the explosion — three of them critically — have all since been treated and released from hospital, police said.<doc-sep>Canadian police are hunting for two men who set off a homemade bomb in an Indian restaurant in Mississauga, injuring 15 people on Thursday evening. Footage released by police shows the two suspects entering the city's Bombay Bhel restaurant with an object resembling a paint can moments before the bomb went off. The pair fled the scene late on Thursday and a manhunt is under way. The motive for the attack is unknown and there was no immediate claim of responsibility.<doc-sep>
One of the two suspects being sought for the bombing of an Indian restaurant in a Toronto suburb that injured 15 people last week may be a woman, Canadian police said Tuesday. The revelation came as investigators continued to be stymied in their search for a motive for Thursday’s bombing of the Bombay Bhel restaurant in Mississauga, Ontario. “I don’t want to say that it is a woman,” Peel Regional Police Superintendent Robert Ryan said. “We are saying it may be a woman.” Investigators decided that one of the suspects might not be a man — as they first believed — after reviewing video footage of the pair running eastbound after the blast and after interviewing the 30 people who were in the restaurant at the time, Ryan said. A still from CCTV footage shows the suspects of the explosion at Bombay Bhel restaurant in Mississauga, Ontario, on Thursday. Peel Regional Paramedic Services via Reuters file “The suspects went to great length to hide their identities,” he said, noting that both had their faces covered. Ryan also confirmed that the explosive device they used was homemade. “Whatever was put in that may be lying around the home,” he said. “We’re hoping science can help identify what it’s made of.” Asked why police were so quick to dismiss the possibility that this bombing was an act of terrorism, Ryan said they saw nothing online “to suggest this was terrorism or a hate crime.” “We do not have a clear motive and no one has claimed responsibility,” he said. Police forensic investigators collect evidence at the restaurant on Friday. Mark Blinch / Reuters file Ryan added that the owners of the restaurant are cooperating with investigators, who have finished processing the crime scene and collecting fingerprints and DNA samples. Two birthday parties were underway at the restaurant and several children under 10 were inside when the bomb went off around 10:30 p.m. ET, police said. None of the children were injured and all the victims, including the three originally listed as critical, were released Friday. In the aftermath, police described one of the suspects as a man in his mid-20s, 5 foot 10 to 6 feet tall with a stocky build and light skin, and the other as a man, 5 foot 9 to 5 foot 10, with fair skin and a thin build. The restaurant bombing happened about a month after a frustrated male motorist who reportedly had a grudge against women plowed a rented van into a lunch-hour crowd in Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 15.