KARACHI, March 2: An FBI team has reached Karachi from Islamabad to investigate the car bomb explosions near the US Consulate on Thursday morning. Well-placed sources said that the FBI team inspected the blast site and the wreckage of the blown up vehicles, and also interviewed some witnesses.

The sources said that the FBI officials later watched the footage of surveillance cameras installed outside the US Consulate and captured the scenes of the incident. They were sure about the suicide bombing.

A white Toyota Corolla car was identified as the explosive laden car that hit the Consulate’s five-door vehicle, carrying an American official.

His other colleague who was supposed to be with him did not accompany him and was safe, the sources added.

However, more FBI investigators from the United States are due some time on Sunday.

Local investigators and security agencies have already sealed the area.

The road, where the blast took place, is littered with wreckage of destroyed cars. The blast also damaged the walls of a naval establishment. The rear portion of the Marriott Hotel also suffered the damage.

The impact of the blast was felt some 500 yards away at Metropole Hotel and its surrounding where windowpanes of various shops were smashed.

The explosion was also heard in Korangi, Shireen Jinnah Colony, Clifton, Saddar and other areas.

The crater at the site of the explosion was between 5-6 feet in diameter and more than two-foot deep.

Besides FBI, the local police collected evidence and scanned the engine and chassis numbers of the vehicles destroyed in the powerful explosion.

One of the destroyed vehicles appeared to be suspicious and it was traced with its chassis number.

The investigators found that the registration number of the car was AGE-750. The car was sold at a car showroom on Dec 15, 2005, to Ghulam Ali, a union council nazim, from Usta Mohammad.

Sources said that Ghulam Ali’s house in Karachi was in Clifton and the police found the car (AGE-750) parked intact at his home.

The car was inspected and found genuine, the police said. However, the chassis number of the destroyed car was sent to chemical examination where it turned out to be tampered.

A senior investigator said: “We have found the chassis number tampered and it is too hard to find its genuine chassis number.”

Now the investigators are searching the vehicles of matching chassis numbers, which were snatched or stolen in the past.

“We are trying to find out the identification of the car so that we reach the perpetrators, besides we are also exploring other aspects to discover important clues to suspects.”

CLUE FOUND: Sindh Home Minister Rauf Siddiqi has said that some clues viz-a-viz Thursday’s blast near US consulate building have been found and the culprits will be arrested soon, adds APP.