One person was dead and a Palm Springs, Calif., fertility clinic was damaged after a bomb exploded nearby on Saturday, the mayor said.
The explosion, which happened less than a mile from downtown Palm Springs, was in or near a vehicle parked by the clinic, according to the mayor, Ron deHarte. He said it was unclear how or whether the victim was connected to the blast.
Reports of a loud boom and images of broken glass and billowing smoke began to be shared on social media around 11 a.m. local time.
A phone number for the clinic, American Reproductive Centers, did not appear to be in service on Saturday.
A website for the office listed fertility treatments, such as in vitro fertilization and egg freezing, among its services.
Dr. Maher Abdallah, who runs the clinic, told The Associated Press that the clinic’s office was damaged, but the I.V.F. lab and stored embryos were not.
“I really have no clue what happened,” Dr. Abdallah said. “Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients.”
The police, firefighters and medical crews were on the scene, the mayor said. Mr. deHarte said that F.B.I. officials were also on the scene.
Videos showed flames licking the shattered terra-cotta tiles of the clinic’s roof as debris clogged its entrance.
Claudio Chavez, who works at an upholstery shop near the explosion, said that his store’s windows were blown out.
“I was just in my shop waiting for clients, and all of a sudden it felt like a big explosion,” he said. “It took out our window. I just saw a bunch of smoke.”
He said people came out of homes and businesses onto the street to see what happened. Mr. Chavez, a logistics manager at the shop, said he began picking up debris and sweeping up broken glass.
Scott Pastorius, 61, a construction project manager from Los Angeles, was sitting in his vacation home four blocks away from the explosion site when he heard a loud boom.
“My initial response was earthquake, but in a split second I realized it was too intense,” he said. “The whole house rattled and then the glass in the door I saw flexing.”
Mr. Pastorius said he ran into his backyard, where he saw a plume of smoke billowing nearby. He grabbed his camera and got in his car and drove to the scene.
The damage was extensive, he said.
The Desert Regional Medical Center across the street, a liquor store and a pancake house had windows blown out, he said. A nearby hotel also had doors blown off and its portico was damaged, Mr. Pastorius said.
Mr. Pastorius said the roof of the fertility clinic had collapsed and the entire back side of the building had been blown out. Debris from the explosion shot across the street to the other curb, he said.
“That was a very intense explosion,” Mr. Pastorius said.
Claire Fahy reports on New York City and the surrounding area for The Times.
Simon J. Levien is a Times political reporter covering the 2024 elections and a member of the 2024-25 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.
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