Monorovia, June 25: Explosives landed within a US diplomatic residential complex in Liberia's besieged capital today, causing casualties as thousands of terrified Liberians crowded into the compound to escape fighting engulfing the city, a US official confirmed. A US embassy official, speaking from the US Embassy across the street from the high-walled residential complex, said authorities had no details on the numbers of wounded or any dead.

An Associated Press reporter and photographer at the scene felt the ground shake from the two explosions, but could not tell whether the explosions were from inside or outside the US compounds.

Survivors ran past with wounded wheeling one bleeding young man out in a wheelbarrow, and using a ragged shirt as a stretcher for another victim.

The US Embassy and sprawling US residential complex nearby are on a rocky hillside overlooking the Atlantic coast. The European Union compound is next to the US Embassy.

US authorities earlier in the day admitted tens of thousands of refugees to the US residential compound as rebels armed with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars, small arms and other weapons attacked the city.

It marked the first time since 1996, during the height of Liberia's 1989-1996 civil war, that authorities had opened the compound as a refuge for Monrovia's people.

Witnesses said four people were trampled to death in the stampede to get in the US compound gates.

Bureau Report