Saturday, September 13, 2008

Wave of blasts hits Delhi markets

Five bombs have ripped through busy markets in India's capital, Delhi, within minutes of each other, killing at least 18 people, police say.

The explosions, which also injured about 80 people, are not thought to have been very powerful but happened in areas crowded with evening shoppers.

Crude explosives have been detonated in several Indian cities recently.

More than 400 people have died since October 2005 in attacks on Ahmedabad, Bangalore and other cities.

India has blamed Islamist militant groups for these previous bombings.


I came running down and I saw at least four to five people lying on the road
Sanjeev Gole
eyewitness

In pictures: Delhi blasts

CNN-IBN, a local TV news channel, said it had received an e-mail before the blasts from a group calling itself the "Indian Mujahideen".

"Do whatever you can. Stop us if you can," the e-mail reportedly said.

The same group has claimed responsibility for two other recent bombing attacks.

Pakistan's new President, Asif Ali Zardari, "strongly condemned" the bomb attacks, expressing "shock and grief over the loss of precious human lives".

His Prime Minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, said the bombers were "enemies of humanity".

Chaotic scenes

Two of the latest blasts in Delhi are believed to have happened metres away from each other in the central shopping district of Connaught Place.

BBC map

Another blast took place in a market in the Greater Kailash area in south Delhi.

A BBC producer who visited the scene said a low-intensity explosion had scattered glass over a large area, near a popular cafe.

Two of the other explosions were reported in Delhi's Karol Bagh area and on the Barakhamba Road.

Chanchal Kumar helped carry several casualties to ambulances after witnessing one of the explosions, outside a metro station.

"Around 1830 we heard a very loud noise, then we saw people running all over the place," Reuters news agency quoted him as saying.

"There were about 100-200 people around this place."

Another eyewitness, Sanjeev Gole, heard a "huge blast":

"I was around the corner from the road. I came running down and I saw at least four to five people lying on the road."

Television pictures show scenes of chaos at the blast scenes. Crowds milled around mangled vehicles, with debris and blood scattered across the streets.

Earlier attacks

An unexploded bomb was reportedly found and defused at the capital's India Gate monument, local TV quoted police as saying.

After the bombings in Jaipur and Bangalore, a group calling itself the Indian Mujahideen also claimed responsibility.

While it is too early to say exactly what caused Saturday's blasts in Delhi, they appear similar to the earlier attacks.

The earlier attacks involved multiple small devices hidden in small boxes or bags and aimed at soft targets such as crowded markets, analysts say.

The devices contained shrapnel such as nuts, bolt and ball bearings while the explosives used were improvised. Islamic militants in Kashmir have tended to use military-grade explosives.

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