SRINAGAR, March 20: Two schoolchildren were killed and five others seriously injured on Wednesday by a landmine planted by alleged freedom fighters in occupied Kashmir, police said.

Police said the landmine was positioned on the edge of a dusty village road at Takipora in the Lolab area of northern Kupwara district, which borders Azad Kashmir.

“When an army convoy approached the scene militants detonated the landmine, which exploded with a bang at 9:40am,” a spokesman said.

The blast seriously injured seven schoolchildren who were walking by the road, he said.

“They were shifted to an army hospital where two of them died,” he said, identifying the two as Reyaz Ahmed Mir, 10, and Hilal Ahmed, 11.

The two children were buried later in the day at a funeral attended by hundreds of villagers.

Five other children were being treated in hospital, including one girl, 10-year-old Meema Bano.—AFP