No breakthrough in Odisha blast

The Odisha government on Tuesday assured that it would take firm action to prevent incidents such as the Cuttack school bomb blast from happening.

Twenty students were injured, some of them seriously, when a hand-made crude bomb carried by a class IX student in the government-run Ayatpur High School fell from his bag and exploded in the classroom. Though most of the students were released from the hospital after treatment, few of them complained of deafness caused by the explosion and were re-examined at the Sriram Chnadra Bhanja (SCB) Medical College Hospital on Tuesday.

Education Minister R N Nanda, after visiting the school said that a department level enquiry has begun besides a police probe. “I have already asked department officials to file a report on the incident as early as possible. The chief minister has also ordered a detailed inquiry into the incident”, Nanda said.

Police sources said the boy who carried the bomb was injured in the blast himself. The school had thin attendance on Tuesday as parents preferred to keep their children at home.