Seven children were injured, three of them seriously, in an explosion near a garbage dump in Bihar's Bhagalpur district on Tuesday, a senior police officer said.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Bhagalpur, Anand Kumar told PTI that the blast took place in Khilafat Nagar locality, under the jurisdiction of Habibpur police station, of the town and the children appeared to have inadvertently fiddled with an explosive substance.

"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 incident took place around noon and forensic experts as well dog squad have reached the spot to defuse any such explosives that may be lying at the garbage dump and also identify the nature of the explosion that took place," said the SSP.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has also been constituted to further investigate the matter, he said.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.