WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS GRAPHIC CONTENT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A trauma expert says the bomb blast that killed two police officers inside a Woodburn bank caused injuries similar to the wounds suffered by soldiers in Iraq.

Dr. Marty Schreiber, chief of trauma at Oregon Health & Science University, said the description of the injuries sustained in the blast were similar to injuries he has seen while serving in the Army Reserve in Iraq.

"I've taken care of patients who are almost exactly like this, with limbs blown off," Schreiber said. "It's clearly a powerful blast to induce that much tissue damage."

He said the loss of limbs results from the high-pressure shock wave accompanying the blast, which typically is more intense if the explosion is indoors or inside an enclosed space, such as a bus.

The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta characterizes explosives as either "high-order" or "low-order," depending on their strength and whether they generate a shock wave that travels at supersonic speeds, or faster than sound.

A CDC Web site notes that high-order explosives create supersonic waves and include TNT, dynamite, nitroglycerin, ammonium nitrate fuel oil and the military explosives C-4 and Semtex.

Low-order explosives generate subsonic waves and include pipe bombs, gunpowder and Molotov cocktails.

Court documents released by the Marion County district attorney's office after the arrest of the first of two suspects in the case said the blast Friday dismembered the two officers, Oregon State Police Senior Trooper William Hakim and Woodburn police Capt. Tom Tennant.

It also critically injured Woodburn police Chief Scott Russell, who lost his lower right leg while his left leg was mutilated.

There has been no indication what kind of bomb it was, but Schreiber said traumatic amputation - the loss of limbs - is generally associated with high-order explosives.

Some of those explosives also produce incendiary damage - burns - but there was no initial indication that the Woodburn blast produced such damage.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)