Explosion at Delhi High Court Kills Nine People, Injures 45 (2) c.2011 Bloomberg News (Updates with eyewitness comment in third paragraph.)

Bloomberg News -- A bomb that may have been hidden in a briefcase killed at least nine people and injured 45 outside New Delhi's High Court in the worst attack in India's capital in three years.

Ambulances evacuated wounded and the blast site was sealed off by armed police. U.K. Bansal, the country's internal security secretary, said on the CNN-IBN news channel that preliminary evidence suggested a medium-to-high-intensity device stored in a briefcase had exploded near the court's gate number five. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

“It was a devastating scene,” said Mayank Mishra, 27, a lawyer at the court. “I saw bodies, people with broken arms and legs and flesh on the floor.”

Three explosions killed 25 people two months ago in Mumbai, India's financial capital, in the worst terrorist attack in the country since 10 gunmen laid siege to the city over three days in November, 2008, killing 166 people. While India blamed the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group for the raid and broke off ties with its neighbor, other bombings in Indian cities have been claimed by an outfit calling itself Indian Mujahideen.

Delhi was put on high alert following today's blast as Special Police Commissioner Dharmendra Kumar said investigations had begun into its cause. A small bomb was detonated in the court's car park in May, with no injuries. Police said at the time the blast was deliberate, although no suspects were arrested and no motive for the attack was given.

2008 Blasts

The explosion at the high court today at about 10.15 a.m. is the deadliest in New Delhi since five bombs ripped through the city during an evening rush hour in September, 2008, killing 26 people and injuring 133. Indian Mujahideen, which also claimed responsibility for similar attacks in Ahmedabad and Jaipur, said it was behind the blasts.

Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram is scheduled to make a statement on the blast in parliament at 12.30 p.m. local time.

--With assistance from Kartikay Mehrotra in New Delhi. Editors: Mark Williams, Sam Nagarajan

To contact the reporters on this story: Bibhudatta Pradhan in New Delhi at bpradhanbloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at phirschbergbloomberg.net