HYDERABAD (India), Aug 25: A string of blasts tore through the Indian city of Hyderabad on Saturday, killing at least 38 people and injuring 60 in what officials called a terrorist attack.

Three explosions rocked a packed auditorium where a laser show was under way in an amusement park jammed with weekend crowds, while two others ripped through a busy street eatery minutes later, police said.

“To be precise, a total of five explosive devices were used. We now have at least 38 people killed and 60 people injured,” Balwinder Singh, Hyderabad police chief, told reporters.

At least 15 of the injured were in serious condition, officials said, as police chief Singh said a sixth bomb was recovered from a cinema theatre and defused.

Federal Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal said the explosions in the city, which has a large Muslim population and is considered communally sensitive, were the handiwork of “some terrorist group.”

One terrorist group or the other, which is bent on destroying the unity of the country, is certainly involved in the blasts in Hyderabad,” Jaiswal said.

The Hyderabad city administrator said on Saturday that police “already have some leads” but did not elaborate. The Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Rajshekhar Reddy called on “everyone to be calm.”

“Bomb blasts are the cruellest acts against humanity. The perpetrators of such an act could have no religion, ideological or national identity. They at best could be described as traitors of humanity,” said Reddy.

Dismembered limbs, clothes and shoes of people watching the laser show lay scattered on the ground and there were pools of blood where victims had fallen.—AFP