13 dead, many injured as serial blasts rock Mumbai
Multiple blasts rocked India’s financial hub Mumbai today evening, the police said, in what the home ministry described as a "terror strike".
The police gave no details of any casualties, but news channels cited eyewitnesses as saying as many as 13 people might have been killed, in the first major incident in Mumbai since the 2008 attacks on the city that left 166 dead.
"We can confirm three blasts," police control room officer Madhuri Waghare told AFP.
In New Delhi, the home ministry said the multiple explosions were a "terror strike" involving improvised explosive devices, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
A minister in the Maharashtra state government, Chhagan Bhujbal, told reporters that all three explosions had targeted busy areas of Mumbai, including a wholesale gold market.
"It is clear that that the attackers wanted to hurt as many as people as possible. Many people are injured," Bhujpal said.
The police said one of the blasts had gone off near a school. In 2008, 10 Islamist militants laid siege to the city, attacking multiple targets, including five-star hotels.
India blamed the banned Pakistan-based Islamist group Lashkar-e-Tayyaba for the assault, which led to the suspension of fragile peace talks between the two nuclear-armed rivals.
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