At least 20 people have been killed and more than 113 others injured in what the Indian government have called a 'co-ordinated' terrorist strike in Mumbai.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said: 'I strongly condemn the bomb blasts in Mumbai this evening. I appeal to the people of Mumbai to remain calm and show a united face.'
Mumbai police confirmed three blasts, one in central Mumbai and two in the south of the city, which is still scarred by the attacks of 2008 blamed on the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
'This was a coordinated attack by terrorists,' Home Minister P Chidambaram told reporters in New Delhi.
'The entire city of Mumbai has been put on high alert. I would appeal to the people of Mumbai and people all over the country to remain calm,' Mr Chidambaram said, adding that federal investigative teams were being rushed to the city.
The targets included a predominantly middle class residential area, a wholesale gold market and a building housing diamond traders and jewellery shops, with the explosions reported at rush-hour, at around 6.30pm local time.
In November 2008, ten Islamist militants attacked multiple targets in Mumbai, including five-star hotels, in a deadly assault that killed 166 people.
India blamed the Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the assault and broke off a peace dialogue with Islamabad. Talks between the two nuclear-armed rivals only resumed earlier this year.
Eyewitnesses outside the diamond trader building in South Mumbai said a car bomb had exploded at around 6.45pm when the area was packed with office people returning home from work.
The last major bombing incident in India was in February last year in the western city of Pune, when a blast at a packed restaurant killed nine people including one foreigner.
