UPDATE (BBC):
Twenty-one people were killed and 113 injured, said Maharashtra state’s Chief Minister, Prithviraj Chavan.
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Blasts in Mumbai have left 17 dead. Three improvised explosive devices were used. The blasts occured in three crowded locations so getting a body count was clearly the motive. CNN on the blast when they were still not formally saying it was terrorism.
A report on heightened security — and now it’s clear it was terrorism:
Here’s a report from India’s The Hindu Newspaper. Officials now flatly say it was terrorism:
Sources in the intelligence set up were inclined to believe that IEDs, used in the blast, appeared to be handiwork of Indian Mujahideen working closely with Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist outfit.
Describing the serial blasts in Mumbai as a well “coordinated attack by terrorists”, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday appealed to the people to remain calm and maintain peace.
Three blasts in India’s financial capital ripped through crowded places at 6.45 p.m. and occurred within minutes of each other, the Home Minister said after presiding over an emergency meeting of top officials of the ministry. “We infer this was a coordinated attack by terrorists,” he told reporters outside North Block. He feared that the death toll in the blasts could go up.
He said the National Security Guard (NSG) hub in Mumbai, set up in the wake of 26/11 terror attack in the city in 2008, has been put on standby. He said the elite force’s ‘post-blast’ team has also been sent to Mumbai.
The Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) team from Delhi and Hyderabad has been sent to Mumbai, he said. Mr. Chidambaram said that a team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), led by an IG rank officer, will also leave for Mumbai during the night.
Mr. Chidambaram was directed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to do everything necessary after serial blasts rocked Mumbai and keep him updated.
The Prime Minister, who was monitoring the developments related to the three explosions, spoke to the Home Minister as well as Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, PMO sources said. While speaking to Mr. Chidambaram, Dr. Singh asked him to do the needful and update him.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s India reporter:
Three explosions rocked crowded districts in India’s largest city last night, killing at least 13 people and injuring more than 80.
India’s home ministry has labelled the co-ordinated blasts in Mumbai a “terror attack”, the first in India’s financial hub since militant gunmen laid siege to the city three years ago, killing more than 160 people.
One explosion was in the busy central Mumbai neighbourhood of Dadar, another at the Jhaveri Bazaar, while the third was at the Opera House district, which is popular with tourists.
The Opera House blast was the most powerful, according to police, but all three areas were reportedly busy with rush-hour commuters at the time of the explosions.
Home Minister Palaniappan Chidmambaram said the blasts occurred between 6.45pm and 7.04pm local time.
“Therefore we infer this is a co-ordinated attack by terrorists.
“The entire city has been put on high alert,” he said, urging residents to remain calm.
Mumbai residents were also asked not to go to the blast sites, for fear the crime scenes would be contaminated.
Seventeen people were killed and 81 injured, said Maharashtra state’s chief minister Prithviraj Chavan.
He called the explosions, during Mumbai’s busy evening rush-hour, “a co-ordinated attack by terrorists”.
One explosion was reported in the Zaveri Bazaar, another in the Opera House business district and a third in Dadar district in the city centre.
Police sources were reported as saying the explosions were caused by home-made bombs.
The attacks are the worst in Mumbai since November 2008 when 10 gunmen launched a three-day co-ordinated raid in which 166 people were killed.
Zaveri Bazaar is a bustling market area famous for its jewellers. It has been targeted before: during the serial blasts in the city in 1993, 17 people were killed and 57 injured when a scooter packed with explosives blew up there.
Opera House, next door, is also a bustling business district teeming with traders. And Dadar, in the heart of the city, has one of the most crowded railway stations on Mumbai’s busy suburban train network.
The choice of locations makes it clear that the blasts were intended to cause maximum casualties. But early footage of one of the blast sites – a ripped-off cover of a bus shelter and a car with its glass shattered – points to a medium-level and possibly crude explosion.
So far, there is no evidence to suggest that Mumbai is under attack the way it was in November 2008. And this could easily be the handiwork of a local group.
The BBC’s Soutik Biswas, in Delhi, says there is no evidence so far to suggest that Mumbai is under attack in the same way.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.