(Adds police comment, updates injured numbers)
SANTIAGO, Sept 8 (Reuters) - A bomb blast at a fast-food restaurant next to an underground train station in the Chilean capital of Santiago injured eight people on Monday, police said.
"At 1400 (1700 GMT) an explosive artifact was detonated in the center (mini-mall) by the metro station, and at the moment investigations are being carried out to determine the origin," said Mario Rozas, head of police communications.
The blast occurred at lunchtime in a small shopping and eating area next to the Escuela Militar metro station in the residential and shopping neighborhood of Las Condes.
The metro was operating normally after the explosion although the Escuela Militar station was closed, police said.
This week Chile commemorates the forty-first anniversary of the 1973 military coup that removed socialist President Salvador Allende from power. Traditionally, the anniversary is a time of protests that often turn violent.
A number of explosive devices have been planted close to banks and police stations in Chile in recent years, with one member of an anarchist group killed and another injured trying to set off the devices.
In July, an incendiary device exploded on an underground train without causing injuries. (Reporting by Santiago bureau, Writing by Rosalba O'Brien; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Jeffrey Benkoe)
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