An explosion outside a California fertility clinic that left one dead and several injured was caused by a bomb, the mayor of Palm Springs has said.
Palm Springs Police spokesperson Mike Villegas called it an “intentional act of violence,” according to The Desert Sun. Police are investigating whether the attack was an act of “terrorism.”
Firefighters in the city responded to the explosion at the American Reproductive Center that left at least one person dead and five people injured.
The person who died is believed to be a suspect, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Mayor Ron DeHarte told The Los Angeles Times in a text that he could “confirm it was a bomb in or near a vehicle parked at the building. One deceased.”
Later, he told CNN that there was no indication yet on the identity or the motive of the bomber: “We don’t have the why or who yet, and that’s all to come. Certainly, our teams are on top of that. Time will get us those details.”
However, he said authorities do not believe there is any further danger to the community. A briefing was expected later on Saturday.
Describing the location of the explosion, DeHarte told the network, “It’s in the Uptown Design District of Palm Springs. [The clinic is] right across the street from Desert Regional Medical Center. It’s not part of the Medical Center campus, but it’s on Indian Canyon, which is just one block east of Palm Canyon Drive that everybody is familiar with when they come to Palm Springs.”
Speaking to the Palm Springs Post, Lt. William Hutchinson with the Palm Springs Police Department confirmed that a car was responsible for the explosion. The department also confirmed that one person has been killed.
“Everything is in question, whether this is an act of terrorism,” Hutchinson told The Desert Sun.
A witness told the Post that he saw human remains in the street.
“In front of the building [the car] was blown clear across four lanes into the parking lot of [Desert Regional Medical Center],” the witness said. “I could see the back of the car still on fire and the rims. That was the only thing that distinguishes it as a car.”
U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli has confirmed that the FBI is investigating the incident to determine whether it was intentional. According to spokesperson Nicole Lozano, investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives are also working to assess what happened.
American Reproductive Centers, a fertility clinic and IVF lab, is located at 1199 N Indian Canyon Drive, across the street from the Desert Regional Medical Center. A hospital spokesperson has confirmed that the explosion did not take place in the medical center.
It is the only clinic of its kind in the Coachella Valley. Authorities have warned the public to avoid the area.
Palm Springs resident Tamara Cash told The Desert Sun the explosion “was so loud it shook me. All I could hear was alarms going off in different buildings.”
Dr. Maher Abdallah, who runs the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic where the explosion occurred, 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.”
Pam Bondi, the U.S. attorney general, tweeted: “I have been briefed on the explosion at a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California that took place today. Federal agents are on the ground now responding alongside local law enforcement.
“We are working to learn more, but let me be clear: the Trump administration understands that women and mothers are the heartbeat of America. Violence against a fertility clinic is unforgivable.”
While there have been attacks on abortion clinics and people who work at them for many years, attacks on fertility clinics like the one in Palm Springs have been rarer.
Palm Springs is a city of roughly 45,000 people about a hundred miles east of Los Angeles, and has often been used as a vacation spot for the rich and famous. The resort city is situated in the Coachella Valley within the Colorado Desert.
The city’s population triples between November and March as it has become a prominent retirement and snowbird destination. Most of the snowbirds have been Canadians, but some have started boycotting the city amid President Donald Trump’s harsh policies and aggressive rhetoric against the US’s neighbor to the north.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
