AHMEDABAD, Feb 19: India’s western Ahmedabad city was placed on high alert on Sunday after 25 people were injured, three of them seriously, in a bomb blast at the main railway station, police said.

“It was a bomb blast. It was meant to create panic and terror. Whether it was a handiwork of terrorist outfits is not clear,” said A.K. Bhargava, police chief of Gujarat state which includes Ahmedabad.

He said that powerful explosives were used for the blast, but the impact was limited as there were no trains at the station early morning when it was detonated.

Two of the three people seriously injured suffered major damage to their hearing, doctors said.

The others were discharged after being given first-aid.

The explosion destroyed part of a railway platform in the city, the commercial capital of Gujarat state, witnesses said.

Two tea stalls were destroyed in the early morning explosion.

Gujarat state’s home minister Amit Shah inspected the site of the blast and declared a state of “high alert,” police said.

By late afternoon, trains were running on schedule after services had earlier been halted.

Police have stepped up security in other parts of the city as well, a government spokesman said. —AFP