17 dead in Mumbai blasts, over 80 injured

MUMBAI: Three back-to-back blasts in the heart of central Mumbai left seventeen people dead and over 50 injured, Indian media reported on Wednesday.

Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, said the latest attack killed 17 people, and a federal government minister said the toll was likely to rise.

Indian home ministry confirming the occurrence of blasts in Dadar market, Jhavery Bazaar and Opera House, termed the incidents a terrorist activity in which more casualties are feared. Improvised explosive devices were used in the blasts, the Indian home ministry sources added.

Television footage showed dozens of police officials, several of them armed, at the sites of the explosion and at least one car with its windows shattered. A photograph showed victims of a blast at the Jhaveri Bazaar crowding into the back of a cargo truck to be taken to a hospital.

Because of the close timing of the string of explosions, "we infer that this was a coordinated attack by terrorists," Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said.

One blast hit the crowded neighborhood of Dadar in central Mumbai. The others were at the bazaar, which is a famed jewelry market, and the busy business district of Opera House, both in southern Mumbai and several miles (kilometers) apart, police said.

All three blasts happened from 6:50 p.m. to 7 p.m., when all the neighborhoods would have been packed with office workers and commuters.

The blasts would mark the first major attack on Mumbai since 10 militants laid siege to India's financial capital for 60 hours in November 2008. There was no immediate indication that Wednesday's blasts were part of a prolonged siege.

The 2008 attack, which targeted two luxury hotels, a Jewish center and a busy train station, killed 166 people and was blamed on Pakistan-based militant groups. The attacks escalated tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals and prompted them to suspend peace talks.

However, the talks have recently resumed.

Pakistan's government expressed distress on the loss of lives and injuries soon after Wednesday's blasts were reported. (Indian media/AP)