Bhagalpur: Seven children were injured on Tuesday in an explosion near a garbage dump in Bihar's Bhagalpur district. Three of them sustained serious injuries and have been admitted to a hospital. The explosion took place around noon in Khilafat Nagar locality, which comes under the jurisdiction of Habibpur police station of the town. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been constituted to further investigate the matter.
A Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) team is present at the spot to search and collect the explosive material in order to understand the blast's nature and the kind of bomb involved in the incident, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Bhagalpur, Anand Kumar told news agency PTI.
"Seven children, three of them seriously, were injured in the incident. All of them have been admitted to the nearest government hospital," he said.
The children inadvertently fiddled with an explosive substance lying at the spot, causing it to explode.
Besides forensic experts, a dog squad has also reached the spot to defuse any such explosives that might still be lying near the garbage dump. The SSP said that the investigators have collected crucial evidence from the spot, which will be examined scientifically.
"Officials are trying to find out the nature of explosive material found from the spot......was it a country-made bomb, or some firecracker…and whatever...Evidence is being collected from the spot," Kumar added.
Senior officials are also present at the explosion site.
Station House Office of Habibpur police station, Pankaj Kumar, said that the injured children were giving two different accounts of the incident.
"Some children told police that a bomb was planted there and it exploded when they were playing…other children told cops that a person came and threw a bomb like object there, which exploded," SHO said, adding that all the injured children are out of danger.