MUMBAI, July 28: Four people were killed and 31 injured on Monday when a bomb ripped through a bus packed with commuters in Mumbai at evening peak hour.

Witnesses said the entire rear portion of the bus, which had been moving through heavy traffic, was torn apart while a bus coming in the opposite direction and a motorcycle were also hit by the force of the blast.

Witnesses described scenes of panic as the bomb detonated, shaking nearby buildings and rattling windows.

Sanjay Nirmal, a local resident, said that the blast was so loud that a woman holding a baby lost her grip and dropped it to the ground.

Eyewitness Kishore Vaghela added: “The blast was so big that it was heard two to three kilometres (more than a mile) away. I ran to the spot and saw what happened and helped carry the victims to the hospital.”

Police in recent days have been warning that they had received information that militants were planning to launch an attack either in New Delhi or Mumbai.

Krispashankar Singh, home minister of Maharastra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, told Zee TV the explosion could be linked to earlier deadly attacks on public places in Mumbai.

Mumbai police commissioner R.S. Sharma said there were parallels between Monday’s blast and an attack in December 2002, when two people were killed and 27 injured by another Mumbai bus bomb.

As police and forensic experts combed the cordoned off area around the bus wreckage, Mumbai Police Commissioner R.S. Sharma said he suspected the Lashker-i-Taiba had carried out the attack.

“We suspect that it could be the work of Lashker-i-Taiba and we have commissioned an enquiry,” Sharma said, confirming the explosion was caused by a bomb.

Lashker is one of the two groups that New Delhi blames for the December 2001 militant attack on its parliament which left 15 people dead, including five attackers.—AFP