A bomb has rocked a food court inside a Santiago metro station, wounding seven people in a blast that Chile's government has called a "terrorist act".
The explosive device that ripped during lunch hour at Escuela Militar (Military School) station was made with a fire extinguisher and a clock and had been planted inside a rubbish bin, officials said.
"It was a terrible scene. A woman was sprawled on the floor, clients ran out without paying, leaving food on their plates," Rosa Valdes, a restaurant worker, told AFP.
Silvana, a cook at a food stall next to the one hit by the explosive, said she saw people "wounded, bleeding, screaming, crying, taking pictures".
"We never imagined that it was a bomb," she said at the station, which serves one of the most heavily used subway lines in the capital.
Nobody took immediate responsibility for the blast, which follows a string of unsolved small bombings in Chile that took place in uncrowded places.
Four women and three men were wounded in the blast, medical services said. None of the injuries was life-threatening.
"This is an act that has the hallmarks of a terrorist act. There is not doubt about that," said government spokesman Alvaro Elizalde, adding that the authorities would launch an "energetic response".
President Michelle Bachelet held an emergency meeting and met three of the wounded at a clinic.
"What happened today is horrible, completely reprehensible," the socialist leader said. "But Chile is and will continue being a safe country."
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