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Child hurt in Aden explosion

ADEN: A loud explosion rocked Yemen's southern port city of Aden on Saturday and witnesses said at least one child was hurt in the blast.

They said the explosion occurred in the early evening in an alley between a petrol station and a new multi-storey building, shattering windows of the building and others in the area.

The cause of the blast was not immediately known and no one claimed responsibility for the explosion. Witnesses said police rushed to the scene and closed off the area as they began investigating.

Residents said the explosion was the first one of its kind in Aden in more than a year. The city and other parts of the country were rocked by a spate of bombings in 1998. Authorities at the time arrested a number of suspects, mainly from opposition groups, but later released them.

A Yemeni court last November convicted two 17-year-old students for some bombings and said they had been paid to carry out the explosions, without giving details.

The two teenagers were sentenced to five and ten years in jail, but the sentences were immediately halved because they were minors.-Reuters