From the S&S archives: Grenade kills six in Saigon

SAIGON — The Republic of Vietnam's Independence Day celebration was marred Friday by a grenade blast that killed 6 and injured 38 at a military exhibit here.

Two of the dead were children and two were soldiers. One of the soldiers had been in a helicopter on display, into which the grenade was thrown. He threw the. grenade back out, but was killed in the subsequent explosion.

A grenade was thrown at a U.S. officers billet in the west end of the city, but the missile failed to explode and no one was hurt.

In a suburb of Saigon near the airport, another grenade exploded, but no casualties were reported.

The first grenade was thrown by a teen-age Vietnamese, almost on the steps of Saigon's city hall.

After the blast, the young terrorist ran down a wide hall, but was jumped by dozens of police and bystanders. After a severe beating, he was taken away in a police van.

Officials believe he is a member of one of the Viet Cong's special assassination cells made up of young fanatics who call themselves "volunteers for death."

A second youth carrying two grenades was arrested at almost the same spot.

Though the blast was on a mall facing a U.S. military officers' billet and the U.S. Information Service building, no Americans were hurt.

The grenade was thrown just a block away from the Presidential Palace, about an hour after President Ngo Dinh Diem had attended an official Republic Day parade along the waterfront. The parade itself went without incident.

Meanwhile, a new blast was heard in downtown Saigon Friday evening, but it could not be confirmed immediately whether another grenade had been thrown.

During the day there were reports of other grenade explosions around the capital, apparently planned by the Viet Cong to dampen the holiday atmosphere of Republic Day.