16-Year-Old Girl Suffers Severe Injuries After Illegal Explosive Device Inside Home

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    PHILADELPHIA, PA (KYW) — Police say a 16-year-old girl’s foot was severely injured in an accident with an illegal explosive device inside an East Germantown home.

Detectives say the girl was visiting friends when the explosion happened on the second floor of a home on the 5500 block of Blakemore Street around 8:15 p.m.

Police say the victim and two other teens were in a bedroom when an unknown illegal explosive device went off, causing severe injuries to the victim’s right foot. Police say she was bleeding heavily but was conscious.

“Most of her right foot is gone,” Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said. “We believe it all occurred from an explosion inside the private residence.”

She was transported to Einstein Hospital and is currently in stable condition.

The explosion was so powerful it blew a hole in the floor.

“There’s a large hole in the floor, about a foot square, that actually blows open a hole into the first floor. You can see from the second floor down to the first floor,” Small said.

Police are investigating how the device went off. Detectives say they aren’t sure what kind of explosive device it was but say it was surely illegal for them to have.

This is the second consecutive night a child was injured by an explosive device in the city.

On Tuesday, a 12-year-old boy suffered severe injuries to his hand while playing with an explosive device in Kensington.

The blast was so powerful it was heard from blocks away by police on patrol.

He is still hospitalized at Saint Christopher’s Hospital and is going to need additional surgeries to repair the damage.

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