One dead as serial bomb blasts hit Indian IT city: police

BANGALORE, July 25, 2008 (AFP) - India's high-technology capital Bangalore was hit by a string of seven coordinated bomb blasts Friday with at least one person killed and several wounded, police said.









Police said the southern city had been put on high alert, with bomb disposal teams and forensic experts rushed into action.

"One woman died and four were injured in the first blast," Bangalore police commissioner Shankar Bidri told reporters, adding the total amount of explosive used in the bombs was "equivalent to one or two hand grenades."

"We suspect that timer devices were used in two or three explosive devices, while the others could have been set off using mobile phones," he said.

"We are investigating the blasts.

Bomb disposal squads and forensic experts have reached the spot.



Bangalore police is on high alert.

"

India's Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta said there were a total of seven blasts within a radius of 10 to 15 kilometres (six to nine miles).

Assistant police commissioner A.

Raghuveer said the bombs went off within minutes of each other in different parts of the city, the hub of India's outsourcing and software industry and the Indian base of many global technology fi