JERUSALEM, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- One person was killed and 19 others injured in an explosion of unexploded ordnance during a school trip in northern Israel on Monday, Israeli police and the national emergency service Magen David Adom said in separate statements.
According to media reports, the victim was a 15-year-old student. Two of the injured were in serious condition, while three sustained moderate injuries.
The blast struck a group of teachers and students from a high school in the northern city of Ma'alot-Tarshiha. The group was hiking along a popular trail between the villages of Manara and Yiftah in northeastern Israel, near the Lebanese border.
Israel's Channel 12 News reported that investigators were examining the possibility that the explosion was caused by an unexploded rocket fired from Lebanon during the fighting, or a fragmentation grenade left by the Israeli military in the area.
Following the blast, the police closed off the area and urged the public to stay away to allow bomb disposal experts to investigate the circumstances of the explosion. ■
