Five children were injured on Wednesday when explosive devices in an under-construction building went off in a village in Swat's Barakot Tehsil, police said.

The school children, aged between 6 and 12, were playing in a heap of sand in a building in Rangila village, when devices buried under the sand went off.

“Police and security forces arrived at the scene and began investigations [into the incident] while the injured children were shifted to the Saidu Teaching hospital,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police Barikot Syed Zaman Shan.

Dr Mingul Aleem of the Saidu Teaching hospital said that two of the five children were critically injured and had been shifted to the operation theatre for surgery.

The other three children, however, received minor injuries and were out of danger, the doctor added.