Myanmar capital hit by small blasts, no casualties

YANGON, Apr 20: A series of small explosions hit central Yangon today, causing some property damage but no casualties in the Myanmar capital, police and witnesses said.

Three blasts occured at around 2:15 am (1945 GMT) in Kyauktada Township, including one outside a post office that shattered windows and damaged a power control box.

''If there were people nearby, they could have been severely wounded or killed,'' a policeman told Reuters.

The cause of the blasts was not immediately known, police said.

Security was beefed up in the area where some government offices were located before the ruling military junta decamped to a new administrative capital north of Yangon late last year.

A series of bomb blasts in Yangon last May killed 23 people and wounded 162.

The military, which has ruled the former Burma in various guises since 1962, has blamed the bomb attacks on exiled opponents of the regime.

REUTERS