YANGON (AFP) – One man was killed on Sunday in a small bomb blast in northeast Yangon, a police official said, the second such bombing in Myanmar’s main city within 24 hours.

“A man was killed during a bomb blast in Shwe Tyi Tha township,” said the Yangon police official, who did not want to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

He said the explosion hit a residential area at about 5:30 pm (1100 GMT), but gave no further details.

A similar bomb exploded near a football field in northeast Yangon at about 7:00 pm on Saturday, causing minor damage but no injuries. Police said they also managed to defuse a second explosive device that night.

Sunday’s blast was in the same suburb as an explosion at a pro-government office in July, which state media blamed on two members of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

Myanmar’s junta had in the past blamed bombings on armed exile groups or ethnic rebels who have been battling the military rulers for decades.

The NLD won elections in 1990, but the junta never allowed them to govern and has kept Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for most of the years since.

Myanmar saw four bomb blasts last month, one of which killed two people and wounded 10 at a video cafe in Yangon. Authorities later arrested an ethnic Karen rebel fighter in connection with the bombing.