Jaipur, May 13: Eight blasts ripped through bustling crowds in Jaipur in a span of 20 minutes this evening, killing up to 60 people, including children and a just-married bride, and injuring over 200.

The first bomb went off at 7.30pm near the landmark Hawa Mahal and another at the Sanganeri Gate Hanuman temple, chock-a-block with devotees on the shrine’s principal day of worship, Tuesday.

Intelligence officials also cited a possible Pokhran II connection: the day coincides with the 10th anniversary of the May 11 and 13 nuclear tests in the Rajasthan deserts, a few hundred miles away.

Immediate suspicion fell on the Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul Jehadi Islami, blamed for several recent strikes including one on a Hanuman temple in Varanasi on a Tuesday two years ago.

Initial reports said RDX may have been used in the bombs, which police said were planted on bicycles, with the ball-bearings used as shrapnel, and triggered by alarm clocks. One bomb, though, was probably placed in a Honda City car.

The attack sites, mostly markets, were blood-splattered and strewn with limbs, mangled heaps of rickshaws and bicycles, and glass shards from smashed car windscreens and bangles.

The explosions tossed some of the victims into the air, eyewitnesses said.

“We heard a big sound and saw a plume of smoke and blood all around,” a bleeding man said as he was stretchered into a hospital.

“I heard a deafening noise and I thought it was a cylinder blast,” said another man, Hemanth Modi. “There was smoke and I could not find my son. Then I found him.”

The body of a bride, wearing a bright red sari and marriage bangles, lay on the road. A young man hung out of a rickshaw with his head turned back and face smeared with blood. In the puddle of blood outside the Hanuman temple, a 10-year-old boy lay dead.

Chief minister Vasundhara Raje put the death toll at 60 but state police chief A.S. Gill said it was 45.

The day’s second blast, too, occurred in Hawa Mahal’s neighbourhood. The rest took place near Chhoti and Bari Chaupar, Tripolia, Chandpol Bazaar and Johri Bazaar, all within a 2km stretch of the heritage-hued walled city. PTI said a bomb was defused near the Hanuman temple.

The tourist season, however, ends in March and no reports of casualties among foreigners were received.

The explosions set off panic, with near-stampedes as people ran helter-skelter. As police cordoned the sites, traffic snarls brought the city to a standstill.

“People started running around and I followed them,” said a man, Anil Garg. “There are huge traffic jams. I am very scared.”

With ambulances far short of requirement, scores of local people ferried the wounded and the dying to hospital, where people soon gathered looking for familiar faces. Sawai Man Singh Hospital sources said the cellphones of some of the dead brought there began ringing, and the doctors picked these up to convey the bad news to their families.

Across the city, police warned people not to touch any unclaimed objects. The Centre sent the National Security Guard’s bomb data squad to Jaipur.

An alert has been sounded across the country. Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi said a meeting would be held to decide on Saturday’s match at Jaipur.

The blasts come seven months after a militant attack killed two at Rajasthan’s symbol of inter-faith harmony, the Ajmer Sharif dargah.