Blast kills policeman near Eid prayers in Bangladesh

At least one policeman has been killed and five others wounded after a small bomb blew up near a mass Eid prayer congregation in northern Bangladesh.

At least 200,000 people were gathered at a school outside a prayer ground in the northern Kishoreganj district when the bomb exploded on Thursday, according to police and local media.

There were reports of exchanges of gunfire at the scene.

The private Somoy TV station broadcast footage of a gunfight between police and a group of attackers and reported the policeman had been hacked to death.

"One police constable is dead and at least five others were injured," Mahbub, a police officer in the Kishoreganj control room, told the AFP news agency.