Hyderabad:
Large crowds gathered near the site of the explosions in the Hyderabad suburb of Dilsukhnagar yesterday evening hours after 14 people were killed and another 78 injured in a pair of near-simultaneous blasts.
The presence of hundreds of people meant that the police struggled to collect evidence.
The charred wreckage of parked scooters lay on the ground.
The bombs ripped through the crowded shopping area that houses two cinemas, many small restaurants and a large fruit and vegetable market.
Storefronts were shattered, motorcycles covered in debris, and food and plates from a roadside restaurant were scattered on the ground near a tangle of dead bodies. Passersby rushed the bleeding and wounded out of the area.
(See Helpline numbers)Mahesh Kumar, a 21-year-old student, was heading home from a tutoring class when a bomb went off.
"I heard a huge sound and something hit me, I fell down, and somebody brought me to the hospital," said Kumar, who suffered shrapnel wounds.
Most of the people injured were rushed to the nearby Osmania General Hospital. They lay on stretchers waiting for assistance while sobbing relatives pleaded for information about missing loved ones.
"Bodies have arrived and over 50 injured people have been brought to the spot," Kailash Nath, an officer at the Osmania General Hospital, told news agency AFP.