Jaipur: Seven serial blasts rocked the city of Jaipur at 7:35 PM on Tuesday evening, killing at least 50 people and injuring 150 others.

The injured have been rushed to the Sawai Mann Singh hospital. There are six women among the dead. The blasts — which were of medium intensity — took place in the walled city area.

The Chief Information Commissioner of Jaipur, Rohit Singh says that the first blast took place at the Manas Chowk Police Station area. The second blast, according to him, was near the most famous sweet shop in the city, Lakshmi Mishtaan Bhandar which is in Johari Bazaar.

The third blast took place in Tripolia Bazar where a Hanuman temple drew a large number of devotees on Tuesday, while the fourth and fifth blasts were reported at Badi Choupal and Choti Choupal.

Two more blasts took place near the Kotwali area. A bomb squad has reached the affected areas and an eighth bomb has been diffused in the walled city area.

According to the SP of Jaipur, the blasts took place within a span of 12 minutes of each other — which seems as if it was is a planned and well-organised attack.

Near-Stampede Situation

The blasts set off panic and near-stampede situation at all the localities.

The places are fairly crowded as they are popular tourist spots and even in the lean tourist season, the areas are congested specially in the evenings when people are on their way home from offices.

Traffic movement has been obstructed and panic is now setting in. The police was caught unawares, but now shops have shut down and police have cordoned off the area.

According to the authorities, one bomb went off in a car while another near a handloom shop. The other bombs were planted in cycles.

He said that no intelligence inputs were available earlier, but the police was generally on the alert because of the IPL matches taking place in the city.

Terrorist Attack?

Speculation is rife that this could be the handiwork of Lashkar-e-Toiba, but the authorities say that they need some more time to verify this.

The fact that bombs were planted in bicycles indicate that there could be a similarity to the Malegaon blasts in 2006.

The Chief Secretary Jaipur, BC Sawant, has told CNN-IBN that the DGP of Rajasthan has reached the spot. "We are hopeful to have control on the situation very soon," says he.

The blasts have happened at a time when the whole of Jaipur is in the grips of IPL cricket frenzy. Most of the police and security forces are busy in the preparations of the IPL matches.

Mumbai and New Delhi have been put on high alert and the National Security Guard has reached Jaipur. All the city borders as well as Rajasthan state borders have been sealed.

There have been communal tensions in the city, but no blasts except for the blast in October 2007 at the dargah of the Sufi saint, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer. Then two people were killed and 17 injured.