BANNU, Sept 5: Sixteen people, among them 13 students, were injured when a powerful bomb exploded outside a girls’ school in the busy trade centre area on Thursday.

The condition of three students was reported serious.

According to the bomb disposal unit personnel, 10kg of explosives was used in the bomb planted by suspected militants under a bridge near the Government Girls Primary School No 1 in Mohalla Gardnali. The bomb went off when students were coming out of the school at the end of their classes.

The injured students were identified as Zahida, Amna, Maryam, Ali Shah, Saeeda, Amna Bibi, Sania, Maryam Zahoor, Sonia, Aiman, Memoona, Hassan Khan and Yousuf Khan. The injured passers-by were Ali Zaman, Asghar and Zahid Rasool.

Meanwhile, an attempt to blow up a three-storey school-building was thwarted by personnel of the bomb disposal unit after they defused a bomb.