The FBI is helping police in Bloomington, Minnesota, try to determine the cause of an explosion early Saturday morning at a mosque in the city.
Authorities said no one was injured in the blast at Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center. Bloomington Deputy Police Chief Mike Hartley said officers received the report about the explosion around 5 a.m. local time Saturday. Responding officers found damage to the building and smoke in the area, the police department said in a tweet.
At a news conference, a witness said the explosion happened around the time of morning prayers. The witness described running outside after the blast and seeing a car driving away.
Police said it is too early to call the incident a hate crime, according to CNN affiliate WCCO.
A spokesman for the Muslim American Society of Minnesota told the TV station it believes someone may have thrown something into the window of the mosque’s imam’s office.
The society’s executive director, Asad Zaman, said the imam’s window was broken and cited a witness who saw someone standing by the window before the explosion.