A 16-year-old boy was killed when a bomb hidden in a container went off in Rahara in North 24-Parganas on Saturday morning.

Police sources said the incident occurred when the victim, Seikh Sahil, threw the container unknowingly after picking it up from waste materials that his grandfather had brought for sorting.

Eyewitnesses said the container thrown by Sahil hit a nearby lamp post and exploded, injuring him critically.

Sahil was rushed to BN Bose Subdivisional Hospital in Barrackpore and later shifted to College of Medicine & Sagore Dutta Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

Abdul Hamid, Sahil’s grandfather, said: “I had brought the sealed steel container home after collecting it from the garbage dump. I had no idea that there was a bomb inside it.”