Explosives kill four Kohat children

PESHAWAR: An explosive device killed four Pakistani children and wounded three others, while they were playing at a pond in warm spring weather on Wednesday, police said.

Police said the device exploded on the outskirts of the northwestern garrison town of Kohat in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where Taliban insurgents have been fighting against government troops.

The victims were aged seven and nine, police said. "Four children have been killed and three others were wounded. The bomb disposal squad informed me that the blast was caused by a mine," Masood Khan Afridi, a senior police officer, told AFP.

"Some children were swimming in the pool and some were playing there. Perhaps a child stepped on the mine and it exploded," he said. "I talked to the bomb disposal officers at the scene and they said it was some type of explosive, maybe a mine, maybe a grenade. They are investigating," Zafar Iqbal, police official in Kohat said.