Burgas Terror Act Reenactment Deemed 99% Success

Crime | April 27, 2013, Saturday // 13:05|  views

The first ever reenactment of a terror attack in Bulgaria was held Friday under maximum security near the Trakiya highway. Photo by BGNES

The reenactment of the Burgas bus bombing which took place Friday morning near the town of Ihtiman has been deemed 99% successful, the Chief of the National Investigative Services, Boyko Naydenov, says.

He further reported that the first explosion has not only confirmed all evidence collected so far, but has given to the investigation some new leads to be followed. Because of that there will be no repeat of the reenactment.

However, Naydenov declined answering if the perpetrator has been near the bus' luggage compartment at the time of the explosion.

On July 18, 2012, Bulgaria's Black Sea city of Burgas became a target for a terrorist attack.

The bus explosion at the Sarafovo airport killed a total of five Israeli tourists, the Bulgarian bus driver, and the alleged perpetrator of the attack.

Meanwhile, the Bulgarian 24 Chassa (24 Hours) daily writes Saturday, citing own unnamed insider sources, the reenactment has shown that the perpetrator has not been a suicide bomber as his wounds revealed he was moving away from the bus seconds after placing his backpack with explosives inside the luggage compartment.

One of the grounds for such conclusion is evidence that one of his legs sustained more burns than the other, meaning one was on the ground and the other in the air.

The sources have also said that in addition to the bomb, the attacker had a container filled with some sort of easily inflammable substance (fuel), while the detonator was placed in a small bag around his waist.

The reenactment failed to clarify if the detonation was caused by a mistake of the man or remotely by another person.

The investigation already showed earlier that he had not been planning suicide as he had been purchasing expensive items for long use while staying in the Black Sea city of Varna.

The reenactment has proven the already known quantity and type of the explosives used in the attack, however, their origin is still unclear

The two buses that were blasted were purchased by Europol. Dummies were placed inside and around the buses with maximum precision, following thorough examinations of security cameras and witness accounts.

The dummies were manufactured in the military factory "Arsenal" in Kazanlak of jelly material with silicone-based collagen and corresponded to the muscle and bone density of the human body, thus the injuries are same as the ones sustained in the explosion.

The buses were placed in the same position as they were at the Sarafovo airport, while the bomb was an exact copy of the one that exploded last July.

Europol experts were present at the first ever reenactment of a terror attack in Bulgaria, which was held under maximum security near the Trakiya highway, mid-way between the capital Sofia and the second largest city of Plovdiv.

Media representatives were allowed at the scene.

On February 5, 2013, following a meeting of the Consultative Council for National Security at the President's Office, then-Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov made a statement, saying that the investigating authorities had gathered evidence pointing to a "reasonable assumption" about the involvement of Hezbollah's military wing in the Burgas bus bombing.

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Tags: National Investigative Services, Boyko Naydenov, reenactment, blast, bomb, explosives, Ihtiman, Burgas bus bombing, explosion, Sarafovo, Israeli tourists, Hezbollah, terror attack

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