At least 42 people were killed and about 80 injured in a string of blasts on Saturday in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, officials said yesterday.
"The death toll now is 42. More than 50 people are being treated in various hospitals," said K. Jana Reddy, home minister of Andhra Pradesh state, of which Hyderabad is the capital.
An explosion rocked a packed amusement park stadium where a laser show was under way, while another bomb blew up a busy nearby food stall minutes later.
Police found 19 unexploded bombs across the city yesterday. New Delhi has sent extra police and special bomb detection equipment to Hyderabad, an information technology hub with a history of Muslim-Hindu tensions.
Police discovered the unexploded bombs -- most fitted with timers and placed in plastic bags -- at bus stops, by movie theaters, road junctions and pedestrian bridges and near a public water tap across the city.
The chief minister of Andhra Pradesh pointed to Islamist militant groups in neighboring Pakistan and Bangladesh.
"As things stand today the available information points to that," Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy told a news conference yesterday.
A federal home ministry official said about 22 people were being questioned. Separately, police reported one man had been detained near Hyderabad on suspicion of selling bicycle ball-bearings that were used as pellets in the bombs.
"The blasts were not done by local people," taxi driver G.R. Vidya Dhar said.
"This is definitely being done from outside with an intention to make us fight each other. Let us wait and see," Dhar said.
India has faced several large-scale bomb attacks in its big cities over the past two years, including in Mumbai and New Delhi.
Indian officials have blamed Pakistan or Bangladesh-based militants for several attacks.
Saturday's blasts were designed to kill as many people as possible.
"The metal pellets in the bombs had worked as deadly missiles, killing more people," said K. Shastry, a senior doctor at a large hospital that received many dead and wounded.
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