Bomb blast in Nepal capital kills 3, injures 5

Nepalese police officials inspect a body lying on the street after an explosion in Katmandu, Nepal, Monday, Feb. 27, 2012. A bomb exploded in front of the headquarters of Nepal's monopoly oil importer, killing three people and injuring five in the capital's first major attack in three years, police said. AP PHOTO/NIRANJAN SHRESTHA

KATHMANDU—At least three people were killed and five wounded in an explosion near government offices in Kathmandu on Monday, police said, in the first bomb attack in the Nepali capital in three years.

The device, which went off at 1:25 p.m. (0740 GMT) in a busy area of Kathmandu as workers were heading out of offices on their lunch breaks, killed two people instantly while a third died in hospital, officials and police said.

A previously unknown group calling itself the Unified Ethnic Liberation Front claimed responsibility, Home Minister Bijay Kumar Gachchadar said, although the group’s agenda remains unclear.

“We will take action against the group. This is a political group which the police are investigating,” he told AFP.

“This is a very serious incident. Two were killed on the spot and one died in hospital. Seven were wounded.

“This is not due to a lapse in security but it represents an ongoing threat. I have ordered that security be tightened.”

Nepal has enjoyed an uneasy calm since rebel Maoists waged a 10-year war against the government until a peace accord was signed in 2006.

The blast is the first attack in Kathmandu since the bombing of a packed Roman Catholic church on the outskirts of the capital in 2009, which killed a woman and a teenage girl.

“A special team of police has been deployed in the area. They are gathering evidence and the area has been cordoned off,” said police spokesman Binod Singh.

Live television pictures from outside the offices of the state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) showed blood spattered across the road while police cleared panicked office workers from an area surrounding a body.

“We rushed to the site after hearing the explosion. There was panic and crying,” said Ramesh Koirala, chief of the NOC’s administration department.

“I saw that one body was piled up on another. The police haven’t picked up the dead bodies yet. There were internal organs scattered across the road. One of our employees, who is in his 30s, has been seriously injured.”

Another witness told News 24 TV: “There was a sudden explosion while we were talking and we ran for cover.

“We assumed that sound of the explosion was from a punctured tyre but we quickly realized that it was a bomb blast.”

Three people were killed and two others injured in December 2009 when a bomb went off in the southwest of the country but the device was thought to be a leftover from the Maoist insurgency.