Twelve hurt in rebel attack on Nepal school

KATHMANDU, Mar 31 (Reuters) At least 11 school children and a teacher were wounded today when Maoist rebels set off an explosion at a school in west Nepal, the army said.

The blast took place in Dailekh district, 550 km west of the capital Kathmandu while children were appearing for a school-leaving examination, an army officer said.

''The injured are undergoing treatment in a local hospital,'' he said.

Dailekh is a stronghold of the Maoists who want to overthrow the Hindu monarchy and set up a single-party communist republic.

There was no comment from the rebels about Friday's blast, but the United Nations expressed concern.

''Bombing and any other acts of violence on school premises are to be condemned,'' UNICEF, the global body's child agency, said in a statement in Kathmandu.

It urged both Maoist rebels and Nepali soldiers, involved in a decade-old conflict, not to target or endanger schools.

The army uses schools as barracks while the Maoists hold meetings at educational institutions. There have been occasions when schools have been the scene of battles.

This week, army helicopters attacked a gathering of rebels near a school in east Nepal, killing four Maoists and a civilian.

More than 13,000 people have died in the Maoist revolt since 1996 and according to a local child rights' group, about 400 of them were children.

REUTERS SY PC2009