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Saturday, January 10, 1998 Published at 20:16 GMT
World: S/W Asia
Bombing in Madras on eve of Gandhi visit
![image: [ A police sniffer dog near the scene of Saturday's bomb blast ]](/olmedia/45000/images/_46410_indiadog300.jpg)
A police sniffer dog near the scene of Saturday's bomb blast
A small bomb has exploded in the southern Indian city of Madras, shortly before the arrival there of Sonia Gandhi, widow of the assassinated former prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi.
Police say the blast happened near a fly-over in the centre of the city opposite the American consulate.
Four people were injured, and witnesses said some windows in the American consulate were damaged in the blast.
Although Mrs Gandhi is due to launch her first political campaign in the city on Sunday after re-entering politics last month, police do not believe the explosion is connected to her.
The BBC South Asia correspondent, who is in Madras, says the authorities are investigating a link with a group called the Islamic Defence Force, which said it carried out another bombing last month on the fifth anniversary of the demolition by Hindu militants of a mosque at Ayodhya in northern India.
Mrs Gandhi's husband, Rajiv, was killed by a suicide bomber during an election meeting in the nearby town of Sriperumbudur in 1991.
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