DHAKA: Citing security concerns, the West Indies Under-19 cricket team Sunday declined to play Bangladesh U-19 in Chittagong, 242 km southeast of capital Dhaka.

The visitors expressed their reluctance after a bomb blast Saturday night in front of their hotel in the seaport city Chittagong, where the West Indies team has been residing, reports Xinhua, according to Zee News.

Bangladesh has been rocked by homemade bomb attacks in recent weeks.

‘An explosion occurred a short distance away from the team hotel in Chittagong Saturday evening,’ said a WICB statement issued Saturday at St John’s, Antigua.

It said, ‘the players and members of team management were not targeted and were not in any immediate danger as a result of the incident’.

Some 50 people, including nine Wednesday, have reportedly died and hundreds others injured in stray incidents of political violence since November 26 in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country.

BDST: 1938 HRS, DEC 08, 2013