Two people were injured in a bomb blast at Barara village under Kankartala police station in Birbhum district of West Bengal on Thursday evening. The explosion took place when they were preparing crude bombs, an official of the Kankartala police station told The Hindu on condition of anonymity. Earlier this month, a similar blast in Khagragarh town in Bardhaman district killed two persons. On Thursday evening Seikh Arman and Akram Seikh were making crude bombs in a pukka house. “They were in their neighbour’s house in the village and making the bombs,” the official said. After the blast, the injured men were headed to the neighbouring Bardhaman district in an ambulance which was intercepted by the Pandebshwar police in Bardhhaman, local villagers told The Hindu.

An official of the Pandebshwar police station, however, denied that the ambulance was “intercepted”.

“We found Mr. Arman and Mr. Seikh were critically injured. They were not running away, but going to hospital,” said the official.