Explosions rock Myanmar's capital city

Four explosions rocked Myanmar's capital, Naypyitaw, and two other towns yesterday, residents said, adding several people were wounded but no one has been killed. There was no immediate claim of responsibility or response from the authorities. Myanmar's government has blamed similar previous bombings on ethnic minority rebels. The first three blasts went off within minutes of each other in three different places. Incident The first suspected bomb exploded in a jeep in Mandalay, the country's second-biggest city after the former capital, Yangon, at about 12.10pm. The incident happened near Zaygyo Market, a major shopping centre in the central city, about 640km north of Yangon. "We heard the car was badly damaged and four people were wounded," a shopkeeper told Reuters, adding the market was closed at the time of the incident, otherwise the number of casualties would have been higher. A bomb was also blamed for an explosion in an unoccupied house opposite a market in Naypyitaw, the new capital about 330 kilometres north of Yangon, around 12.20pm. "It was very powerful. We all heard a very loud explosion," said a government official who had been in a bookshop near the market at the time. Casualties "So far as I heard, there were no casualties. Security officials are now combing the area," said the official, who asked not to be named. The third explosion hit Pyin Oo Lwin, a town about 72km north of Mandalay, around 12.30pm, the Mandalay shopkeeper said. The fourth explosion went off around 3pm in the same part of Mandalay as the earlier blast, near a rubbish dump. No casualties were reported, the shopkeeper said. From gulfnews.