Updated | Hamrun car belongs to criminal suspect

Three people were injured in a car explosion after a red Fiat Fiorino was blown up on Canon Bonnici Street, in Hamrun this morning.

The explosion ocurred at around 9:40am, Police said. The car was not carrying any passengers at the time of explosion, but it was parked in front of a garage.

The three persons nearby were given medical attention at Mater Dei Hospital, where they were hospitalised for shock.

Police sources say the car belongs to Keith Galea, 31, who was last charged in July 2011 along with Keith Mallia of Ghaxaq, with the theft of car registration plates in Gozo, as well carrying an unlicensed firearm, a knife and pepper spray. Galeais under preventive arrest in Corradino prison. Galea was not driving the car.

Experts on site say the car had only been parked on site that morning, but that the bomb must have been either inside or affixed to the car because the vehicle was blown apart from the inside-out, blasting apart the car's metal skeleton, and sending the car seat flying in the air.

Duty magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona appointed experts to assist him in the enquiry.

AFM explosives experts went on site to inspect the exploded debris.

The last bomb explosion took place in December 2010 when a bomb was placed on a window of Transport Malta offices at Sa Maison, injured Peter Ripard and Konrad Pulé, two employees of the authority.