The blast happened on a bus travelling from Kyaukkyi town to the commercial capital, Rangoon, state media said.

It was parked at a roadside eatery when the bomb went off and only the conductor was on board.

State media blamed the attack on "insurgent Deadly bombing in Somali market ...
Burma rejects UN mediation offer ... destructionists" - ethnic groups fighting the junta for autonomy.

"Fortunately, all the passengers had got off the bus and gone to have breakfast when the bomb went off," a travel agent told Reuters news agency.

"Otherwise, casualties would have been very high."

Ethnic rebels

Three people have now been killed this year in a series of small blasts.

Last week, a woman was killed in an explosion in a railway station toilet in the capital, Nay Pyi Taw. Another woman was injured in a blast in a Rangoon railway station.

Another man died, and four people were injured, when a bomb exploded in Pyu, north of Rangoon.

The government blamed the incidents on the Karen National Union (KNU), a group fighting for greater autonomy for the ethnic Karen people.

The state-run newspaper, the New Light of Myanmar, said in two of the cases it was the bomber who was killed handling the bomb.

There has been no claim of responsibility from the KNU or any other group.

Kyaukkyi, where the bus involved in the latest explosion originated, is in Karen state.

(BBC)

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