Seventeen civilians were killed and 15 were wounded in a blast caused by a booby-trapped corpse in central Mali, security sources and a local official said on Wednesday.

The incident occurred on Tuesday in Diankabou, a small town about 150 kilometers (90 miles) east of the city of Mopti, they said.

A local official told AFP it was caused by “an explosive device which was planted on the body of a man who had been shot dead.”

A security source confirmed the information, saying: “The body exploded, killing 17 people.”

Among the victims were the parents of the man whose body had been booby-trapped, he said.

The man had gone to find food for his cattle and had never returned. His parents then found the corpse.

“They rather unwisely approached the body which exploded, killing 17 people. The gunmen who killed him had planted explosives on his body and around it,” the source said.

“This is a method that terrorists use to cause maximum deaths,” another security source said.

Source: AFP