Kathmandu, Sept. 2 (Reuters): Three near-simultaneous blasts today killed two women and wounded 26 people in Kathmandu, the first since a peace process ended a Maoist revolt in the Himalayan nation in May last year.

The attacks came less than three months before the nation votes to elect a new constituent assembly to decide the fate of the monarchy the Maoists want abolished.

The government and the Maoists said the attacks were aimed at disrupting the vote.

The Terai Army, a little-known group of ethnic rebels in the southern plains, as well as the previously unheard of Terai Utthan Sangat, claimed responsibility for the attacks in calls to local media. The claims could not be verified independently.

One of the bombs went off outside a school and near the newly built United World Trade Centre business complex in the Tripureswor area in the centre of Nepal’s capital, killing the two women.

Another went off outside some shops less than a mile away in the central Sundhara area, while the third was placed inside a minibus outside an industrial park in Balaju, a northwestern suburb.

“I was cycling to work when I heard a big explosion.... Soon I saw people falling down,” said Sunil Maharjan.

“I put three students who were injured in a taxi and took them to the hospital.”

Padam Bahadur Magar, the driver of a city bus carrying 70 passengers in Tripureswor, said the blast took place just as he stopped the vehicle.

“It was a big explosion, the windows of my bus were shattered and the bus was damaged. Some of my passengers were injured,” he said.

Another witness said he saw school text books and pens scattered on the bloodstained ground.

Outside the industrial park in Balaju, police towed away the mangled wreckage of the mini-bus whose roof had been blown off.