Indian-run school in Nepal bombed

Maoist rebels have called for an indefinite strike of schools

Suspected Maoists have exploded a bomb in an Indian-run school in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, police say.

The attack came on the fourth day of a strike call by a student organisation of Maoist rebels. There were no reports of casualties.

In a separate incident in southern Nepal, at least 13 soldiers were injured in a landmine explosion carried out by suspected rebels.

The Maoists want to replace Nepal's monarchy with a republican regime.

'Fairly big blast'

The police said that a group of armed rebels posing as soldiers overpowered the guards and set off a bomb at the Modern Indian School in Kathmandu.

Many of the students at the privately-run school are Indian.

The police suspect that the attack on the school was aimed at enforcing the rebels call for a shutdown.

Some school property and a few buses were damaged in the explosion.

"It was a fairly big blast early in the morning when the school was empty. But there were no casualties," a police spokesman told Reuters.

The indefinite school and college strike is the latest in a series of protests this year called by Maoists.

The strike has been called by the All Nepal National Free Students Union (Revolutionary).

They are demanding not to be classified as a terrorist organisation, the release of senior leaders in government detention and the lowering of school fees.

Thousands of schools and colleges across Nepal have remained closed in Nepal since Sunday due to the strike.

Student exodus

School administrators have met the new Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Sherpa on the resumption of the classes.

"Because of the frequent strikes at Nepal's schools at least 20,000 students crossed the border to India in the last academic year for higher studies," Umesh Shrestha, head of an association of private schools told AFP news agency.

In a separate incident, soldiers were injured after the truck the were travelling in hit a landmine in the southern town Hetauda.

They have been flown to a hospital in Kathmandu for treatment, officials said.

Nine-thousand people have been killed in Nepal since the rebels began their insurrection in 1996.