A US woman was injured when a bomb exploded at the Traders Hotel in central Rangoon on Monday night, the latest in a string of incidents involving explosive devices in the former capital and elsewhere in Burma.

Citing police, AFP reported that the injured American was taken to hospital with wounds to her thigh and her hand after the blast ripped through a guest room at the hotel late on Monday.

Military officials and soldiers with sniffer dogs were seen at the hotel while shattered glass covered the road outside, AFP said, noting that the Traders is part of the Shangri-La group, is located in the heart of Burma’s commercial hub, and is popular with foreign tourists and visiting business people.

Earlier on Monday, Burmese police and Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) squads were called in to investigate other incidents involving bombs and suspicious packages in Burma’s two main cities.

At around 10am on Monday morning, a bomb was found inside the Western Park restaurant in Rangoon’s Ahlone township. An EOD team was called in and the device was defused.

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A few hours later, in Mandalay, a bomb was found at the intersection of 80^th and 16^th streets in Mandalay. The device, made from three batteries, was detonated from a safe distance by an EOD squad after attempts to defuse it had failed, Mandalay division Police told DVB.

Then at 4pm in Mandalay, an abandoned blue rucksack aroused suspicions when it was spotted at the entrance of Waipula Rama Monastery in Chanayetharzan township between 29^th and 30^th streets. Police cordoned off the area and were determining how to deal with it.

Other bomb scares were reported in Rangoon and Pyinmana, but both were found to be false alarms.

On Sunday, two teenagers were slightly injured when a handmade bomb exploded in front of the tax-free market in Tharkayta [Thaketa] township in eastern Rangoon.

And on Friday in Taungoo, central Burma, two people were killed and one injured when a bomb exploded in a room at the Chanmyay Guest House.

Rangoon police have urged the public to stay vigilant and to inform them of anything unusual.