Eight small blasts hit Bangalore

By Neha Singh

BANGALORE, India (Reuters) - Eight small bombs exploded in quick succession across the south Indian city of Bangalore on Friday, killing a woman and wounding at least 15 people, police said.

"In all these cases they have created the blast using timer devices," Bangalore Commissioner of Police Shankar Bidari told reporters at the site of one of the blasts. "Explosives have also been used, in quantity equal to one or two grenades."

Bangalore, known as India's Silicon Valley, is one of the world's most prominent centres for software development and is also the capital of its outsourcing industry.

Also nicknamed the "world's back office", it is home to more than 1,500 top firms, including India's Infosys Technologies and Wipro and offices of global firms such as Microsoft Corp and Intel Corp.

India's home ministry said it suspected "a small militant group" was behind the attacks, but gave no details.

Several IT firms, as well as schools, colleges and cinemas, closed after news of the blasts broke. Phone lines were jammed.

"I was on my way to office when we heard a noise," witness Arun Daniel told the CNN-IBN TV channel. "It sounded like a cracker. The traffic was blocked, everyone was running around. It was not a severe blast."

Local TV showed a stall with broken windows and its concrete floor broken in pieces. Rubble littered another site. Sniffer dogs were used to trace clues.