There was no immediate claim of responsibility or response from the authorities. Myanmar’s government usually blames bombings on ethnic minority rebels.
The first three blasts went off within minutes of each other in three different places.
The first suspected bomb exploded in a jeep in Mandalay, the country’s second-biggest city after the former capital, Yangon, at about 12:10 pm. The incident happened near Zaygyo Market, a major shopping center in the central city, about 400 miles north of Yangon. “We heard the car was badly damaged and four people were wounded,” a shopkeeper told Reuters by telephone from the town, adding the market was closed, otherwise the number of casualties would have been higher.
A bomb was also blamed for an explosion in an unoccupied house opposite a market in Naypyitaw, the new capital about 205 miles north of Yangon.
Published 24 June 2011, 17:21 IST