One person is believed to be dead, and five people are injured, after an explosion outside a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, on Saturday morning.
Palm Springs Police Chief Andy Mills said that “the blast appears to be an intentional act of violence and the blast extends for blocks with several buildings damaged, some severely.”
He confirmed that there had been one person killed, and their identity was not known. ABC’s Los Angeles affiliate earlier reported that the dead person was a suspect. Mills added that the incident “appears to be isolated.”
The FBI Los Angeles bureau said on their X account: “The FBI is responding with police & fire partners to the scene of an explosion on N Indian Canyon Dr in PalmSprings. FBI assets being deployed include investigators, bomb technicians & an evidence response team. Please contact local authorities for safety precautions in the area.”
That statement was reposted by FBI Director Kash Patel, although he had not released a statement of his own as of 5 p.m. ET. Investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also on their way to assist with the investigation.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said he had been briefed on the situation, and he and his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom “are keeping everyone affected in our hearts.”
Bill Essayli, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, posted: “We are aware of the explosion that occurred this morning in Palm Springs. FBI is on scene and will be investigating whether this was an intentional act. We will release as much information as possible once we are able to confirm details.
The explosion happened at 11 a.m. local time and residents were being asked avoid the area around North Indian Canyon Drive near East Tachevah Drive.
Dr. Maher Abdallah, who runs the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic, told the Associated Press that his clinic was damaged. The explosion damaged the practice’s office space, but the IVF lab and its stored embryos were unharmed.
“I really have no clue what happened,” Abdallah said. “Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients.”
One eyewitness, Claudio Chavez, who was nearby in upholstery shop at the time, told the New York Post his front window was shattered.
“It definitely felt like an explosion. It was so loud it felt like it shook my entire core. I was inside my business waiting for a client. I was sitting in my chair and it was like suddenly, like a bomb went off,” he said. “Inside I just saw pieces of debris fall from the ceiling. Walked outside and saw my front window had totally shattered. I went to Palm Canyon Drive and went behind and off Indian Canyon you could see more people and a large amount of smoke. Half of one building seemed to have been blown off.”
Nima Tabrizi, 37, of Santa Monica, told the AP he was in a nearby store when he heard a massive explosion.
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“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.”
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