Rescuers carry an injured victim of a bombing in Shwebo to the ambulance. / Myanmar Rescue Organization
A child was among two civilians killed and 18 injured when a bomb exploded on a bridge near a bus terminal in Shwebo city, Sagaing Region at around 10 am on Tuesday.
A four-year-old boy reportedly died of head injuries from the blast in hospital, according to the Myanmar Rescue Organization.
“Two children were injured in the explosion, with one, a four-year-old, declared dead at Mandalay Hospital. A man in his 60s also died at Shwebo Hospital,” a spokesperson for the organization said.
Ten men and eight women were injured in the blast, five of them seriously, according to the organization.
The explosion happened during rush hour when the bridge was crowded with pedestrians on their daily commute. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Muu Myaung bridge, located at the gateway to Shwebo town, is on the main Mandalay-Shwebo road.
A witness described the blast as the most devastating attack he had ever witnessed in Shwebo.
The first explosion was followed soon after by a second, at the back of the bus station, according to local sources.
“Another bomb exploded a few minutes later injuring a truck driver and his assistant,” a local resident said.
Buses at the Shwebo Station postponed services due to the explosions.
Earlier. a sound bomb had detonated near the bus terminal at around 7 am but no casualties were reported.
Shwebo Township is located in the resistance stronghold of Sagaing Region where regime troops have been conducting a terror campaign of arson attacks, massacres, arrests and lootings against civilians and resistance groups.
