Pune, INDIA (Agencies) At least eight people were killed after a bomb blast ripped through a restaurant popular with foreign tourists in the western Indian city of Pune on Saturday, police and Home Ministry officials said.
“There are eight dead and 33 injured in the blast at the German Bakery,” Rajendra Sonawane, a joint commissioner of police, told reporters before it was confirmed that the blast was caused by a bomb.
According to police sources, four foreign women were among the dead.
The explosion marked the first such major attack in India since the Mumbai attacks in November 2008.
Four or five foreigners were among the 33 wounded, officials said.
The explosion comes days before top officials from India and Pakistan are to meet in New Delhi on Feb. 25. New Delhi suspended a four-year-old peace process with Islamabad after the Mumbai attacks, blamed on Pakistani-based militants.
The explosion at German Bakery occurred late in the evening, when the restaurant was packed with tourists and foreigners.
Debris was strewn all around the bakery, located near Osho ashram, which is also frequented by foreigners, and also near a Jewish centre. The impact of the blast knocked the bakery’s sign off and blew out windows.
“It’s a terror attack. A CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) team is being sent to Pune,” home secretary G.K. Pillai was quoted as saying by the domestic Press Trust of India news agency.
Militants killed 166 people during a three day rampage through the financial hub of Mumbai in 2008. Pakistani-based militants were blamed for the attack which raised tensions between nuclear rivals Pakistan and India.
Before Mumbai, a wave of bombs hit Indian cities in 2008, killing more than 100 people. Police blamed most of those attacks on home-grown Muslim militants, although some Hindu militants have also been suspected of carrying out several attacks.