SRINAGAR, INDIA (DPA) – Seventeen students were injured in a blast at a school in India-administered Kashmir on Wednesday (Feb 13), police said.

“The cause of the blast is unclear and investigations are going on,” a senior police official said of the incident in Pulwama district.

The students aged 15 and 16 belonged to the 10th grade at the school in Narbal village and were attending a tutorial class, NDTV news channel reported.

Normal classes in the Kashmir valley are currently closed for winter vacations.

The injured students had been admitted to two hospitals nearby and a few had been shifted to the Jammu and Kashmir state capital for treatment, IANS news agency reported.

The incident triggered clashes between local people and police as protesters gathered outside the school pelted stones at the police.

The policemen resorted to tear-gas shelling leading to further clashes, a witness said.

There have been incidents in the past of civilians getting injured by explosives left behind at sites of gun battles between rebels and security forces in India-administered Kashmir.

The region has seen a violent secessionist movement since the 1980s in which more than 45,000 people, including civilians, security forces and rebels, have been killed.

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