BANGALORE, July 25: India’s high-technology capital Bangalore was rocked by a string of bomb blasts on Friday with at least two people killed and a dozen more wounded, police said.

Police said the southern city had been put on high alert, with bomb disposal teams and forensic experts rushed into action as authorities tried to determine who was responsible.

“A woman and a man have died and around a dozen others received shrapnel injuries in the blasts,” Bangalore police commissioner Shankar Bidri told journalists.

The officer put the number of explosions at seven but the Press Trust of India news agency quoted unnamed officials as saying there were nine blasts.

Two occurred close to police facilities while another bomb went off in an upmarket city-centre business district, Bidri said, adding a fourth explosion targeted Koramangla district, which houses several computer software firms.

Other blasts were reported from the southern suburbs of the religiously mixed and cosmopolitan city, also the hub of India’s burgeoning outsourcing and software industry, police said.

“We suspect that timer devices were used in two or three explosive devices, while the others could have been set off using mobile phones,” police chief Bidri said.

“We are investigating the blasts. Bomb disposal squads and forensic experts have reached the spot. Bangalore police is on high alert.”

So far none of India’s various Muslim guerrilla groups or outlawed Maoist insurgents has claimed responsibility for the attacks, Bidri added.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the serial bomb blasts and urged residents to “remain calm and maintain communal harmony,” a spokesman for the premier said in New Delhi.

“The prime minister also expressed grief over the loss of lives and sends his condolences to the families of the bereaved,” the spokesman added.

The attacks took place in a radius of 10 to 15 kilometres (six to nine miles), Indian Home

Secretary Madhukar Gupta added.

“Initial reports say that some of the blasts are low intensity using gelatine (gelignite explosive) sticks,” assistant police commissioner A. Raghuveer told journalists, adding the blasts took place between 2pm and 2.45pm.

“Such incidents will not deter the government from pursuing its policy of dealing with anti-national elements in a resolute manner,” Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil said, confirming two people were killed.

Bangalore is home to more than six million people and some 1,500 domestic and foreign firms — including Infosys Technologies, the pioneer of India’s outsourcing sector.

Software engineer Ramesh was hit by flying shrapnel as he was riding his motorcycle.

“We saw smoke and dust and then some object pierced my leg,” Ramesh said.

Soon after the blasts, IT companies downed their shutters and asked their employees to go home, although it is not known if they were specifically targeted. —AFP