An explosion in a bus near the Guatemalan capital, Guatemala City, has killed at least five people and left over a dozen others with serious injuries, Press TV reported.
The cause of the blast has not yet been determined. However, witnesses told police authorities that the blast was caused by a fire bomb which was either thrown onto the bus or left on board, causing it to burst into flames.
Two of the people burnt to death were children.
Public transport in Guatemala is subject to regular extortion by violent criminal gangs.
Police reports say in 2010 alone, Guatemalan bus drivers have been forced to pay one and a half million dollars in extortion money to organized crime rings.
Those who have refused to pay were killed.
According to local human rights groups, more than 150 Guatemalan bus drivers and their assistants were murdered in 2010.
Guatemala, a key transit point for South American cocaine into Mexico and the United States, is seeing growing drug violence between gangs vying for control of lucrative smuggling routes into Mexico.
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