Bengaluru: Three students, who had picked up four detonators from a garbage dump next to their school, were injured when they connected one of them to an electric socket inside their classroom and switched it on, at Roopena Agrahara in Bommanahalli on Friday.

The students had found the detonators on a pile of garbage within the school premises and had picked them up out of curiousity as they looked like fancy lights with wires hanging out.

The lunch break, between 12.10 pm and 1 pm, was just getting over and the students were getting into their classrooms at the Sri Sadguru Saibaba High School in NGR Layout when the incident occurred.

The three students Surya B. (10), Shivanatha J. (11) and Kiran Naik (10), all from fourth standard found the detonators in the garbage dump, brought them into their classrooms and plugged one of them into an electric socket as there were loose wires attached to the 2-3 inch blocks, thinking that it would light up.

The detonator exploded with a loud bang, spreading panic in the school. “One of three students had blood in his mouth and injuries in his stomach when I saw him running out,” said Ms Saraswathi, a primary school teacher.

All the three students were immediately taken to a nearby government hospital, where they were given first-aid, and were later shifted to St. John’s Hospital and placed under observation.

“Fortunately, all the three students sustained only minor injuries. They are responding well to the doctors and their parents,” said school principal Jayarajappa.

The Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS), police and Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials and crime branch sleuths with dog squads rushed to the school and combed the entire area.

The three other detonators were secured by the bomb squad, which has taken them for testing. “They were detonators and not gelatin sticks.

They have to be connected to an electrical socket to explode which was what the students did. Such detonators are used in construction activities to break rocks and bring down structures.

We are investigating as to how the detonators landed on the garbage mound here,” said Additional Commissioner of Police, (law and order) Alok Kumar.

“Our officers found that detonators are being used at a construction site next to the schools. We are questioning the labourers. The culprits will be booked under Explosives Act” he said.

One of the students who suffered minor injuries being treated at a hospital —DC