TEGUCIGALPA – One person was slightly injured when a grenade exploded, causing damage to the building of the Honduras’ Emisoras Unidas media group.

Police spokesman Orlin Cerrato told reporters that the grenade was thrown at the building from a passing car at 10:20 p.m. on Wednesday.

“The height of the offices and the roof, which has asbestos material and absorbed the blast wave, ostensibly helped (ensure) that the human and material damage was not greater,” he added.

Broadcast engineer Alejandro Salgado told reporters that several pieces of shrapnel hit him in the back, but he added that his wounds were not serious.

Emisoras’ flagship radio station, news outlet HRN, went off the air after the explosion.

Another Emisoras Unidas employee, Miguel Rivera, said that damage was caused to the roof of the firm’s building, whose hallways and offices became filled with smoke.

In the same building are administrative offices and three Corporacion Televicentro television channels, which are linked to Emisoras Unidas.

The incident came amid Honduras’ political crisis caused by the June 28 coup against President Mel Zelaya, who has been holed up in the Brazilian Embassy here since Sept. 21.

A number of other media outlets have suffered attacks since the coup, and the two largest broadcasters opposed to the putsch have been forced off the air several times by the de facto regime. EFE