Police and firefighters responded to an explosion Saturday that rocked a neighborhood and damaged a fertility clinic in the tony California city of Palm Springs.
The act was being investigated as a possible car explosion, said two law enforcement officials briefed on the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss preliminary information from an ongoing investigation. At least one person was believed dead, said one of the officials. Authorities have not disclosed a motive.
The city of Palm Springs said Saturday in a social medial post that the explosion happened at 11 a.m. local time and that residents were being asked to avoid the area around North Indian Canyon Drive near East Tachevah Drive.
Investigators from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were on their way to the scene to help assess what happened.
Dr. Maher Abdallah, who runs the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic, confirmed that his clinic was damaged. He told The Associated Press in a phone interview that all of his staff were safe and accounted for.
The explosion damaged the practice’s office space, where it conducts consultations with patients, but left the IVF lab and all of the stored embryos there unharmed.
“I really have no clue what happened,” Abdallah said. “Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients.”
Nima Tabrizi, 37, of Santa Monica, said he was inside a cannabis dispensary nearby when he felt a massive explosion.
“The building just shook, and we go outside and there’s massive cloud smoke,” Tabrizi said. “Crazy explosion. It felt like a bomb went off. … We went up to the scene, and we saw human remains.”
Tabrizi added that the explosion didn’t seem to him to come from a car.
Palm Springs is a tony community in the desert about a two-hour drive east of Los Angeles. Its known for upscale resorts and a history of celebrity residents.
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Tucker reported from Washington. Gene Johnson reported from Seattle.
Eric Tucker And Gene Johnson, The Associated Press
