‘Low-intensity’ blasts hit western Indian city

INDIA: Four low-intensity bomb blasts shook the western Indian city of Pune on Wednesday, police said, injuring at last one person in the same city where a major restaurant bombing in 2010 killed 17 people.

The blasts came as India’s new home minister, Sushilkumar Shinde, who officially took up his duties Wednesday, had been scheduled to visit the city.

The visit was called off at the last minute because of a scheduling conflict, junior home minister Jitender Singh told India’s NDTV news channel.

Pune police commissioner Gopal Rao Pol told AFP that all the blasts happened in the same locality, and did not appear to comprise a full-scale terror attack.

Television reports said a fifth bomb had been defused.

“Only one person is injured and the injuries are of a minor nature because the blasts were of low-intensity. A security alert has been sounded in Pune and officers have been deployed,” an officer from the police control room added.

One of the bombs was placed outside a McDonald’s fast-food outlet while another was attached to a bicycle, police said.

Police said they initially thought the blasts were fire-crackers but then realised they were caused by explosive devices. AFP