Three people have been killed and five others wounded after an abandoned bomb exploded in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, police say.

The blast happened in the city’s Lideta neighbourhood on Sunday.

The people who died were homeless and living on the streets, senior police officer commander Alemayehu Ayalke told state broadcaster EBC.

There is no indication that this explosion is linked to the crisis in the northern Tigray region.

Fighting between federal and regional troops from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) began there on 4 November and has forced 50,000 people into Sudan.

There have been other incidents in which police said “abandoned” bombs were either found or detonated in Addis Ababa in recent weeks, but most of those did not cause deaths, says the BBC’s Kalkidan Yibeltal.

Reuters news agency reports that police have blamed the TPLF in several previous cases, but have not produced evidence to back up the accusation.

“An investigation regarding the explosion is now going on and the public will be informed once the investigation is completed,” the state-owned Ethiopia News Agency reported on Sunday.