New Delhi - At least 35 people were killed and nearly 100 injured as terrorists set off six powerful bomb blasts at crowded markets in India's northern city of Jaipur on Tuesday, news reports said. The explosions occurred in market places and outside a Hindu temple where a large number of devotees had gathered for prayers, killing 35 people, the NDTV network reported quoting senior government officials.
A seventh bomb was defused by the police's bomb squad in another area in Jaipur, the main city of the north-western Rajasthan state, which is considered the tourist capital of India.
Rajasthan's police chief AS Gill told reporters that it was "obviously a terror attack" adding that the injured had been rushed to local hospitals.
Some foreign tourists could be among the victims of the explosions in the city which lies 250 kilometres south west of national capital New Delhi.
The blasts took place at markets near the Hawa Mahal, Johari Bazar, Badi Choupal and Choti Choupal as well as near the Hanuman temple in the Tripolia Bazar area, police said.
The six blasts targeting five places were "designed to create maximum impact", police officers said adding high-intensity explosives were used in the attacks.
The explosions took place within a range of one kilometre and in a span of half an hour between 7.15 pm and 7.45 pm local time, the witnesses said.
The blasts triggered panic amongst the shoppers and worshippers as frightened people ran helter-skelter for safety. The city plunged into fear as there were traffic jams on the streets and people rushed to their homes after the blasts.
"We heard a deafening explosion and thought an electric transformer had burst. But after sometime there was an explosion near the shops and huge flames engulfing the area. People were crying and running for safety," Lalit Khatri, a witness told the NDTV.
Authorities in India's main cities, New Delhi and Mumbai - which have witnessed terror attacks in the past - were placed on high alert following the blasts, the first major terrorist attack in the country this year.
