Police found 19 unexploded bombs in a southern Indian city Sunday after at least 43 people were killed Saturday in blasts blamed on Islamic militants based in other countries.

New Delhi has sent extra police and special bomb detection equipment to Hyderabad, an IT hub with a history of Muslim-Hindu tensions, after bombs packed with metal pellets exploded at a food center and an amusement park on Saturday night.

About 80 people were wounded by the three blasts that went off within minutes of each other.

Police discovered the unexploded bombs - most fitted with timers and placed in plastic bags - at bus stops, by cinema halls, road junctions and pedestrian bridges and near a public water tap across the capital of Andhra Pradesh state.

The chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Sunday pointed to Islamist militant groups in neighboring countries.

"As things stand today the available information points to that," Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy told a news conference.

A federal home ministry official said about 22 people were being questioned. Separately, police reported one man had been detained near Hyderabad on suspicion of selling bicycle ball-bearings that were used as pellets in the bombs.

Reddy said 40 people had died, including three children, while the state home minister and police put the toll at 43.



Relatives cry over the bodies of Saturday's blast victims, who were killed in an eatery, at their residence in Hyderabad on Sunday.

In May, 11 Muslim worshippers were killed and five shot in subsequent clashes with police after a bomb went off at a historic mosque in Hyderabad.

At a private hospital where several of the wounded were admitted, anxious relatives looked weary after spending the night sitting in plastic chairs in the waiting hall.

"I had gone shopping with my mother and we stopped to eat," said Pawan Aggarwal from a hospital bed. He was being treated for injuries from the blast at the fast-food center. His mother, unhurt from the attacks, had maintained a vigil overnight.

"We were somewhat lucky - we saw so many people dead. There was blood everywhere," he added.

India has faced several large-scale bomb attacks in its big cities over the past two years, including in Mumbai and New Delhi. Hundreds were killed.

Saturday's blasts were designed to kill as many people as possible.

"The metal pellets in the bombs worked as deadly missiles, killing more people," said Dr K. Shastry, a senior doctor at a large hospital that received many dead and wounded.

Police patrols were visible in the city as August 26 is seen as an auspicious day for Hindus and thousands of marriages were planned.

At a city morgue, sobbing relatives and friends of victims held onto each other while standing outside, waiting for police to call them in to identify bodies, many mutilated.

"They had come to shop and had stopped for a bite. Now they are all gone," said Bhaskar, 41, a family friend of two teenage girls and a young woman who died at the food center.

(China Daily via agencies August 27, 2007)