Nine pilgrims injured in cylinder blast in Banka, Bihar

Nine persons were injured, four of them critically in a cylinder blast at a pilgrim centre in  Banka district this afternoon, police sources said.

Police said the meal for a group of Shiva pilgrims was being cooked at 'Assam Kanwarias (Shiva pilgrims) Sewa Shibir' when three cylinders burst one after another injuring nine pilgrims, the sources said.

The injured were admitted to nearby hospital where the attending doctors referred four of them to a Deoghar hospital in neighbouring Jharkhand.

The cause of the blast was being investigated.