KATHMANDU: Three people, including a police official, were killed when a bomb exploded in southern Nepal yesterday. The device detonated outside a local residence after the owner called the police to report a suspicious object on his premises in Dhanusha district.

"The blast occurred just as our team reached there to investigate. The owner, his son and a member of our force were killed," senior police official Pradhumna Karki said. Karki said that two more members of the family and another police officer were also injured and are undergoing treatment.

"We are investigating the case, no one has claimed its responsibility yet," he said. Nepal has enjoyed relative peace since the end of a decade-long civil war which concluded with a peace deal struck in 2006. In May, four people were killed and seven injured in three blasts in the capital Kathmandu, as members of an outlawed Maoist faction made a botched attempt to plant bombs around the city. - AFP