Seventeen people were injured in a bomb blast on a ferry connecting Botahtaung and Dala townships in Yangon on Sunday night, according to local sources, who noted that some of the victims were in critical condition.
The explosion occurred at 6:40 pm, while the boat was in the middle of the Yangon River. The bomb was reportedly placed next to the staircase connecting to the upper deck of the Cherry-2 vessel, which travels between the Pansodan and Dala jetties.
“Most of the victims suffered from injuries to the thighs and the lower parts of the body, but the faces of some people were grazed by shrapnel,” said an official from the Shin Than Yay charity group, which transported the wounded passengers—15 men and two women—to Yangon General Hospital.
“It was a bloody scene,” the official added.
A source close to the hospital confirmed that the victims of the bombing were brought to the facility on Sunday evening.
Photos posted on Shin Than Yay’s Facebook page showed blood around the Cherry-2’s staircase, broken bicycles, and fallen passengers.
After the bomb went off, the ferry, which was headed toward Dala, turned back to the jetty in Botahtaung.
Nearly 100 passengers—mostly day labourers—were believed to have been on board at the time of the blast, according to a Dala resident who had planned to be on the boat in question.
“We missed the ferry yesterday,” he told Myanmar Now on Monday. “We heard the explosion while we were waiting for another boat.
Three military vehicles arrived at the Dala jetty to inspect the scene after the explosion, but were not seen carrying out interrogations of civilians in the area, another local said.
Dala-based anti-junta resistance forces published a statement later on Sunday night saying that they were not responsible for placing the bomb on the ferry, and suggested that the military or its allies had “set them up.”
In an announcement on Monday, the military council blamed “PDF terrorists” for the blast, referring to the anti-regime People’s Defence Force loyal to Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government.
Myanmar Now contacted junta police stations in both Dala and Botahtaung townships for comment. Officers in Dala said that the incident occurred outside of their jurisdiction, and that they had no information about it. Those in Botahtaung did not respond.
