At least seven children were injured, three of them seriously, in a suspected bomb blast in Bhagalpur city of Bihar, around 250km southeast of the state capital on Tuesday. The victims have been admitted to a government hospital.

The incident occurred at Khilafat Nagar locality under Habibpur police station in the city when the kids were playing in a field. The explosive device was kept at a garbage dump nearby and they supposedly fiddled with it.

“It seems that the blast occurred when the children inadvertently handled the explosive substance. Seven of them were injured and have been admitted to a hospital. All of them are out of danger. We are investigating the case and trying to ascertain the type of device and explosive used in it,” Bhagalpur senior superintendent of police Anand Kumar said.

The police said that the bomb could have been a country-made one, but all the children suffered shrapnel injuries, which could have come from iron nails and similar objects packed inside it.

The forensic team of the police was called to gather evidence from the place of occurrence.

Meanwhile, Habibpur station house officer Pankaj Kumar said that the injured children were giving two versions of the incident.

“Some of them are saying that the bomb was planted there and it exploded when they started playing with it. The others are asserting that a stranger came and threw the bomb at them. We are further investigating the matter,” Pankaj said.