NEW DELHI, May 22: One person was killed and 49 were wounded Sunday when blasts rocked two cinemas in New Delhi screening a controversial film condemned by Sikhs, police said, while local media said there had been seven fatalities.

A loud explosion shook the Liberty Cinema Hall in the crowded shopping district of Karol Bagh in the capital during a film screening and was followed by a bomb blast in the Satyam cineplex in neighbouring Patel Nagar.

“The bomb was strapped to a seat in the fifth row of the Liberty Cinema Hall. A second bomb concealed in a bathroom of the Satyam cineplex went off 15 minutes later,” Delhi Police chief K.K. Paul told AFP. “We have sealed both the cinema halls.”

According to the Delhi Police, an elderly man among the 18 people who were seriously injured had died in hospital. “Sita Ram, who was one of the 44 people injured in the explosion in Liberty Cinema Hall, died in hospital. He had slipped into coma due to head injuries and did not come out of it,” said a local police official.

He added that the condition of the six other people, including three children, who were injured in the Satyam cineplex was being monitored. The Star News channel quoted a filmgoer as saying that he had pulled out seven dead bodies from the badly-damaged Liberty Cinema Hall. Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit said there had been no deaths, while police declined to comment on the possibility of any fatalities.—AFP