US pageant queen accused of throwing bombs
AP August 6, 2013, 9:09 am
A teenage beauty pageant winner in the US has been arrested for throwing makeshift explosives at people from a car.
Kendra McKenzie Gill - recently crowned Miss Riverton, Utah - and three others were arrested on Saturday after allegedly throwing the homemade bombs at least nine times.
Police said the group admitted buying plastic bottles, aluminium foil and household chemicals before assembling the devices.
"They were throwing them at both property and people," Unified Fire Authority Captain Clint Mecham told KUTV-TV, adding that nobody was injured.
"This goes well beyond a teenage prank."
Gill, who was 18 at the time of her June 8 pageant win, was booked on suspicion of detonating an incendiary device. She didn't appear on the Salt Lake County jail roster Monday morning, and no phone number for her was listed.
It wasn't immediately clear if any of the four had a lawyer.
Gill defeated eight other beauty contestants in the pageant, showing off years of piano training with a Scott Joplin piece and winning a $US2,000 ($A2,255) scholarship.
Representatives for the Miss Riverton and Miss Utah pageants, which are preliminary competitions for the Miss America contest, didn't immediately return calls seeking comment.
About 40,000 people live in Riverton, which is 32 kilometres south of Salt Lake City.
