Police hunt for India bomb clues

Officials say the bombers wanted to disturb harmony in the city

Police forensic teams are hunting for clues to who carried out twin bomb attacks that killed at least 42 people in the south Indian city of Hyderabad.

Saturday's explosions took place minutes apart at an open-air auditorium and a popular outdoor restaurant.

The authorities said groups in Pakistan and Bangladesh were behind the blasts.

Indian President Pratibha Patil said the attacks were aimed at disturbing harmony in the city, which has a mixed Muslim and Hindu population.

Our country is so big that even if we have the information that something is planned we do not know where or when Shivraj Patil Vineet India's Home Minister

Some 50 people were also injured in the incidents, in Andhra Pradesh state.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy described the blasts as a suspected "terrorist act".

"Available information points to the involvement of terrorist organisations based in Bangladesh and Pakistan," the minister told reporters without giving any names.

Relatives await news

Officials have begun the process of handing over the bodies of those killed to their relatives.

But with many bodies yet to be identified, many people spent the night outside the city's hospitals hoping for news.

Hyderabad has been placed on alert, with extra police out on the streets.

In pictures: Hyderabad blasts

The authorities want to keep a lid on any religious tensions, the BBC's Sanjoy Majumder, in Delhi, says.

Sunday is an auspicious day in the Hindu calendar and a number of weddings are scheduled to take place.

The authorities want to make sure there's no repeat of Saturday's attack, says our Delhi correspondent.

India's Home Minister Shivraj Patil visited the site of the explosions, as well as injured people in hospital, on Sunday to urge vigilance.

"We have to take timely action on the basis of information received," he said.

"But our country is so big that even if we have the information that something is planned we do not know where or when."

The explosions came three months after 11 people were killed in a bombing at the city's 17th-Century Mecca Mosque. Police have yet to formally name suspects for that attack.