1 killed in Afghan bazaar blast

A bomb blast ripped a through bazaar in Maimana city, the capital of Afghanistan's Faryab province, 425 km northwest of Kabul Thursday, killing one person and wounding 18 others, a police officer said.

"Militants planted an explosive device on a bicycle and detonated it next to a police vehicle parked in the bazaar of Maimana. As a result, one person was killed on the spot and 18 others, all civilians, sustained injuries, some in critical condition," Mohammad Naem Andarab, deputy to the provincial police chief, told Xinhua.

Since the police van was empty, no police personnel were harmed, the official said.

The blast happened at 10.30 a.m. when the people were busy shopping in the bazaar, Andarabi added.

It was the second bicycle bomb blast in Afghanistan since Thursday morning. The previous one, which occurred at 10.20 a.m. in the southern Kandahar's Spin Boldak town, had left six civilians injured.