YANGON, Myanmar - A bomb blast in the capital of Myanmar’s northern Kachin state has killed 10 people, including two women, a government official in the military-dominated country said Monday.
Another 23 people, including some 15 children, were injured in the explosion Sunday evening in the town of Myitkyina, the official, who did not wish to be named, told AFP.
The blast occurred in a two-storey house and caused a fire that spread to two neighbouring homes, he said.
The explosion appeared to have been unintentional, occurring when a man in the building was “showing others how to plant a bomb", the source said.
He added that there were several orphans living in the dwellings, some as young as three.
Two other bombs exploded in the same town on Saturday but caused no casualties, according to the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
Myanmar has been hit by several bomb blasts in recent years, most of them minor, which the authorities have blamed on armed exile groups or ethnic minority rebels.
In August, state media accused ethnic fighters in Kachin state of killing seven people who visited a Chinese-run dam at the centre of an ongoing conflict between the army and rebels
Another 23 people, including some 15 children, were injured in the explosion Sunday evening in the town of Myitkyina, the official, who did not wish to be named, told AFP.
The blast occurred in a two-storey house and caused a fire that spread to two neighbouring homes, he said.
The explosion appeared to have been unintentional, occurring when a man in the building was “showing others how to plant a bomb", the source said.
He added that there were several orphans living in the dwellings, some as young as three.
Two other bombs exploded in the same town on Saturday but caused no casualties, according to the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
Myanmar has been hit by several bomb blasts in recent years, most of them minor, which the authorities have blamed on armed exile groups or ethnic minority rebels.
In August, state media accused ethnic fighters in Kachin state of killing seven people who visited a Chinese-run dam at the centre of an ongoing conflict between the army and rebels
