Where safety is good business

COLOMBO, Oct 22: There is money to be made after a bomb blast, and after last week's powerful explosion in the Sri Lankan capital, dealers ...

COLOMBO, Oct 22: There is money to be made after a bomb blast, and after last week’s powerful explosion in the Sri Lankan capital, dealers in anti-explosives safety devices are not letting the grass grow under their feet.From the day after the blast, several advertisements have appeared in newspapers here for safety glass, each peddling the special virtues of its own product. And according to the sellers of these products, they have had an “unprecedented” number of enquiries since last Wednesday.

“Install shatter proof security film and save lives,” proclaimed one advertisement, while another declared that its product was “the ultimate in safety for these uncertain times”.

Eighteen people were killed following the bomb blast last Wednesday and more than 100 injured. Most of the injured were guests in the two five-star hotels who had cuts from flying fragments of glass windows that shattered when the 400 kg of explosives went off in a nearby car park.

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Security experts said casualties were not as high or as serious as they could have been because the hotel rooms had heavy curtains that were drawn at that time of the morning and which were therefore able to contain the flying glass.

But people may not be as lucky the next time around, dealers in safety devices are saying. “Until a bomb actually goes off, no one realises how exactly it’s going to affect them, but by then, it’s already too late,” said Mahes Abeywardene, proprietor of Ashton Blinds.

Another safety device that is being advertised since last week is a “bomb suppressor”. A sales representative at the company selling this product said that they had received more than 50 enquiries for the suppressor that is designed to contain the impact of a 5 kg-bomb.

“All anyone has to do is place the suppressor on the suspicious package immediately,” he said.

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