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The bombs exploded in busy districts in the south of the
city, the same area targeted two and half years ago by militant
gunmen who caused mayhem and bloodshed during a 60-hour siege
that left 166 people dead.
"It is another attack on the heart of India, another attack
on Mumbai," said the chief minister of the state, Prithviraj
Chavan, who hinted at possible foreign involvement by saying it
was a "challenge to Indian sovereignty."
The Home Ministry said at least 20 people had been killed and
113 injured, many of them seriously.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters in New Delhi that
it was "a coordinated attack by terrorists," adding that "the
entire city of Mumbai has been put on high alert."
The targets included a predominantly middle class residential
area, a wholesale gold market, and a building housing diamond
traders and jewellery shops.
All three explosions went off within a 15-minute period,
starting at around 6:50pm (1320 GMT).
"It is clear that the attackers wanted to hurt as many as
people as possible. A lot of people are injured," a minister in
the Maharashtra state government, Chhagan Bhujbal, told
reporters.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, though
suspicions initially fell on two Islamist groups that have
targeted India in the past: the home-grown Indian Mujahideen and
the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
US President Barack Obama was among the first to condemn the
bombings.
November 2008, 10 militants from the LeT attacked multiple
targets in Mumbai, including five-star hotels, in an assault
known as "26/11" in India and often compared to the September 11
attacks on the United States.
India broke off a peace dialogue with Islamabad afterwards,
blaming it for failing to crack down on the militant group. Talks
between the two nuclear-armed rivals only resumed earlier this
year.
Eyewitnesses outside the diamond trader building in south
Mumbai said a car bomb had exploded when the area was packed with
office workers heading home.
"There were lots of people badly injured. We don't know how
many are dead but it was a very big blast," Nimesh Mehta, 38, who
runs a local food stall, told AFP.
Jayesh Labdhi, committee member of Mumbai Diamond Merchants
Association, said he heard a massive explosion, after which the
site was covered in smoke.
"There were so many people lying on the ground just crying
out and wanting help," he said.
The injured, many of whom had serious injuries, were bundled
into taxis or hauled onto tarpaulin sheets and taken to hospital,
he added.
The last major bombing in India was in February last year in
the western city of Pune, when a blast at a packed restaurant
killed 16 people including several foreigners.
In 2006, a series of seven high-powered blasts on suburban
trains in Mumbai killed 187 commuters and left 800 injured -- an
attack that India also blamed on Pakistan-based militants.
Posted in: Multiple blasts kill 20 in Mumbai 'terror' strikes
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