NAWALPARASI: An Improvised Explosive Device (IED) went off in front of Department of Forests-Division Office main gate in Nawalparasi district headquarters, Kawasoti along the Mahendra Highway at around 11:30 am on Thursday.

No casualties were reported in the socket bomb explosion, District Police Office (DPO) informed.

However, the incident has heightened fears among locals as the blast site lies barely 100 metres away from the DPO.

Earlier, an explosive device at Jay Shree bridge in Gaidakot along the highway was discovered by locals on the eve of the general strike enforced by Chand-led communist party.

Locals spotted a jute sack in a bucket with wiring coming out from it at the bridge and alerted security officials who had diverted the traffic from the bridge through the night. However, the Nepal Army’s bomb disposal unit found it to be an elaborate bomb hoax after it reached the site.

According to locals, the outfit that detonated the bomb metres away from the police office today planted the decoy bomb a night earlier at the bridge to distract security agencies.