PESHAWAR, May 14: Police have seized a van fitted with a time-bomb in a congested area of Bannu shortly after a home-made device exploded harmlessly outside a Christian school, officials said on Wednesday.

The vehicle with five kilogrammes of explosive packed in a tin canister fitted with a detonator and a timer was parked outside a hotel in the city’s Lakki Gate neighbourhood where scores of shops are located, Bannu police chief, Iqbal Khan, said.

He said the bomb, which was timed to go off around 8:00am GMT) on Tuesday was detected by a hotel worker at around 5:00am.

“Had it exploded it would have caused heavy losses in the city’s most congested area,” Khan told AFP by telephone.

It was recovered almost two hours after a small home-made device exploded outside a Christian missionary school, about half a kilometre away, he said.

“The pre-dawn blast caused no damage to the school building and no casualties.”

The police officer ruled out involvement of any terrorist group in the blast blaming it on a local “criminal gang.”

He said efforts were underway to arrest the group and said there had been several attacks in the past.—AFP