Chilean police arrest Pakistani who sought visa in US Embassy with explosives on his clothes

Police arrest Pakistani in US Embassy in Chile

SANTIAGO, Chile — Chilean police have detained a Pakistani man who entered the U.S. Embassy in Santiago with traces of explosives on his clothes.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Juan Pablo Varela confirmed that 28-year-old Mohammed Saif Ur Rehman was detained by Embassy security and handed over to police. Rehman told police he came to the Embassy on Monday to get a U.S. visa. Now he’s in preventive detention while prosecutors decide whether to press charges.

Chile’s El Mercurio newspaper and other local news media reported that Embassy bomb-detection equipment found explosives in a bag along with documents and a cellular telephone. Neither Varela nor prosecutor’s spokesman Mario Shilling would confirm or deny the reports.