Maoists bomb Nepali municipal building

The bomb badly damaged the ground floor of the building but no one was injured or killed, a police official said.

"They had planted two bombs but only one went off," said the official, who asked not to be named.

"The security forces defused (the other) bomb inside the building."

The incident took place at Nepalgunj, 500km southwest of the capital Kathmandu.

The rebels have detonated about a dozen bombs across the country since ending a unilateral four-month ceasefire on January 2.

A rebel and five policemen have been killed in clashes while 11 people have been injured in explosions and clashes since then.

The rebels, battling for the past decade to overthrow the monarchy in a conflict that has claimed more than 12,000 lives, said they decided to end the ceasefire because the royalist government refused to match it.