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AHMEDABAD, India : At least two people were killed and 55 injured as more than a dozen explosions ripped through the bustling western Indian city of Ahmedabad on Saturday, senior officials said.
A city police control room spokesman said at least two people died in the explosions. "We have removed two bodies so far from the sites of some of the attacks," the official told AFP.
"At least 55 people have been hospitalised so far and some of them are badly hurt," said Amit Shah, home minister of Gujarat state, where Ahmedabad city is located.
"The state health minister is camping in his office and all hospitals have been alerted to take in more injured people," Shah told reporters.
In New Delhi, Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta said more than a dozen blasts rocked the prosperous city.
"Between 13 and 14 blasts have taken place," said Gupta.
Gujarat minister Shah confirmed the large number of blasts, saying he had reports of "more than 12 bomb attacks" in the city.
Junior Home Minister Shakeel Ahmed meanwhile lashed out at the opposition-ruled Gujarat state for failing to prevent the serial attacks.
"This is very unfortunate and we are surprised that despite a high security alert sounded yesterday after the bomb attacks in Bangalore, the blasts occurred today in Ahmedabad. We are shocked," Ahmed told reporters.
"It seems there is a lack of coordination between (federal) intelligence agencies and people involved in the policing," he said in New Delhi.
On Friday, eight low-intensity bombs went off in the high-tech southern Indian city of Bangalore, leaving one dead and seven wounded.
Some television stations suggested the explosives in Ahmedabad were on bicycles and detonated with remote devices.
Ahmed declined to comment on reports that a little-known Islamic guerrilla group - the Indian Mujahedeen - had telephoned a television station and accepted responsibility for the latest attack.
"Such initial reports are coming from Ahmedabad but let this hour of crisis pass and then we will get a full report from officials on the ground," he said.
Ahmedabad police said the first explosion was reported at around 6:00 pm (1230 GMT) on a bridge in the communally-sensitive city which saw bloody Hindu-Muslim riots in 2002.
"All the explosions occurred within a span of one hour and one of the bombs appeared to have been kept in a passenger bus," the police control room spokesman said.
He said the vehicle was damaged but could not give details of people injured in the attack.
Two of the blasts occurred in Ahmedabad's Maninagar residential district, constituency of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, blamed for turning a blind eye to the 2002 carnage which left 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meanwhile condemned the serial attack and urged Ahmedabad residents to remain calm, his office said in New Delhi. - AFP/ms
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