At least 29 dead in India blasts

At least 16 small bombs have exploded in the Indian city of Ahmedabad, killing at least 29 people and wounding 88.

The attacks came one day after eight explosions in the southern city of Bangalore, known as India's Silicon Valley, which killed at least one person and wounded six others.

The Ahmedabad blasts took place in the old city which is dominated by its Muslim community. One was in a metal tiffin box, used to carry food, another apparently left on a bicycle.

There were two separate series of bombings, the first near busy market places. A second quick succession of bombs went off 20 to 25 minutes later around a hospital, where at least six people died, police said.

Narendra Modi, the state's Hindu-nationalist chief minister, said: "The blasts occurred in 90 minutes, one in a hospital, others in the old city of Ahmedabad."

Suspicion is falling on Islamic militants intent on destabilising India by fanning tensions between Hindus and Muslims, and police have been deployed in Ahmedabad to maintain calm.

Several TV channels said they had received an email from a group called the "Indian Mujahideen" at the time of the blasts. The same group claimed responsibility for eight bombs that killed 63 people in the western city of Jaipur in May.

One television channel showed a bus with its side blown up, shattered windows and the roof half-destroyed. Another showed a dead dog lying beside a blown-up bicycle.

P K Pathak, a retired insurance official who was travelling in nearby bus, said: "The bus had just started when the blast happened. Many people standing on the exit door fell down. There was fire and smoke all over. We got down from our bus and rushed to help them."

On Saturday, another unexploded bomb was found near a shopping mall in Bangalore, but it was unclear whether the bomb was newly-planted or meant to have exploded during Friday's attacks, police said.

Ahmedabad is the main city in the communally sensitive and relatively wealthy western state of Gujarat, scene of deadly riots in 2002 in which 2,500 people are thought to have died, most of them Muslims killed by rampaging Hindu mobs.

© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.