PICS: Twin blasts in Hyderabad's busy market kill 16

In what appears to be a terrorist outrage, twin bomb blasts rocked the highly crowded area of Dilsukhnagar in Hyderabad on Thursday evening, killing at least 16 people and injuring more than 50 people.

The first bomb exploded at a bus stop and two other bombs exploded outside two cinema halls in the same area.

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The first blast occurred at 7 pm when the traffic in the area was at its peak and people were returning to their homes. The second blast took place two minutes later.

The blast at the bus stop was so powerful that it had a devastating impact on the surrounding shops and the people ran helter-skelter.

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Intelligence officials in Hyderabad said that the bombs were triggered through timer devices and kept on two wheelers -- one on a bicycle.

Large crowds had gathered at the blast sites as well as the four hospitals where the injured have been admitted. The police suspect that the bombs were kept on a bicycle parked at the bus stop.

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The police, along with the bomb squads and forensic experts rushed to the explosion site. The police has closed all the roads going towards Dilsukh Nagar area and frisking operations have been launched.

A red alert has been sounded all over Hyderabad and other major cities and towns of the state.

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Ten bodies have been brought to Osmania Hospital and anxious relatives were scrambling to find out the well-being of their missing members.

 Significantly, the Dilsukh Nagar area has been target of terrorist attacks twice in the past. A bomb kept under a foot over bridge in the same area in August 2007 was found in time and deactivated, while the two other bombs planted at Lumbini Park and Kothi areas exploded and killed nearly 40 people.

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Earlier a bomb planted at the Sai Baba temple in 1993 had claimed two lives. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, after visiting the scenes of the blast has ordered a high-level probe in to the incident.

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What has added to his woes was that the Central government and the intelligence agencies had given a warning to all the states about possible terrorist attacks in retaliation to the recent hanging of 2001 Parliament attack accused Afzal Guru.

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