A man looks at a deserted street at Zaveri Bazaar on Friday as he holds his child. (AP)

New Delhi, July 15: Security agencies are following up on an email a Noida-based Hindi news channel received about an hour after Wednesday’s Mumbai blasts.

Union home secretary R.K. Singh told reporters that the email originated outside India. “It is being followed up,” he said.

“We take responsibility of today’s attack in Mumbai,” the email said in bold letters. The sender’s name was mentioned as “Telengana Agitation Movement (Terror Wing)”. Below the sender’s name was another outfit’s name: “TRS & JAC Joint action wing Hyderabad”.

The news channel got the email at 8.01pm. The first blast was at Opera House at 6.54pm.

Sources in the channel said the email was sent from an Internet Protocol (IP) address in Saudi Arabia. The IP address shows the city as Dammam, the third most important city after Riyadh and Jeddah.

Earlier emails, generally sent by the Indian Mujahideen, contained graphic description of atrocities on Muslims in India and clearly mentioned the outfit.

Sources warned that the email may have been sent only to divert attention of security agencies or could be a prank. There is also the possibility that the IP address was masked. Cyber terrorists have been known to send emails by masking the IP address. An email sent from Saudi Arabia, for instance, may actually have been sent from somewhere in Europe or Latin America.

In Mumbai, a scooter that was carrying a bomb has been identified at Zaveri Bazaar and its owner traced through the chassis number.

Nothing, however, has shown clinching evidence leading to the perpetrators although security agency officials maintain that the Indian Mujahideen remain the prime suspects.

Traces of TNT in the ammonium nitrate and fuel oil mixture have also thrown up questions. TNT was not found in earlier blasts.

Although investigations are being done in a much more co-ordinated fashion than in the past, rain has destroyed some of the forensic evidence.

“Even now it is raining,” an official said from Mumbai, ruing the limitations in collecting forensic evidence. He, however, said that learning from past experiences, the different agencies such as the police, the NIA, forensic experts, the NSG and intelligence agencies are operating in a “professional” manner.

Home secretary Singh said the CCTV footage of the three blast sites was being scrutinised by the investigators and they were going through the 11 CDs made from it. “Now, we have all the people and the faces that appeared, who have to be recognised by local people to see if they are locals or outsiders,” he said.