7:30pm UK, Saturday July 26, 2008

At least 29 people have been killed and around 90 wounded in a series of blasts in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad.

The earlier explosions in Bangalore

Police said one of the blasts occurred at a diamond-trading market in Ahmedabad, the commercial capital of Gujarat state.

A television station said the explosives were detonated on bicycles.

The first explosion was reported on a bridge in Ahmedabad, a sensitive city which saw bloody Hindu-Muslim riots in 2002.

Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat state, said at least 16 small bombs went off in several neighbourhoods.

He called the blasts a “crime against humanity”.

A police spokesman said: “All the explosions occurred within a span of one hour and one of the bombs appeared to have been kept in a passenger bus.”

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the attacks and urged residents to remain calm.

The blasts came a day after at least eight bombs went off in the high-tech southern Indian city of Bangalore, leaving two dead and a dozen wounded.

Another unexploded bomb has since been found near a shopping mall in Bangalore, but it was unclear whether it was new or was meant to have exploded during Friday’s

attacks.

Several Indian cities have been bombed in recent months. The attacks have been blamed on Islamic militants.