Film studio bomb kills 23 in India

At least 23 people died in a car bomb blast near a film studio in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad yesterday, police said.

About 35 people were also wounded when the bomb, which had been planted in a parked jeep, exploded at midday as a convoy of cars arrived for the first shot of a new film.

"Twenty-three people have died so far", said HJ Dora, director general of police in Hyderabad. "We have to find out how it was triggered. But the impact of the blast was very high. Many buildings have been affected."

The interior minister of the state of Andhra Pradesh, A Madhava Reddy, said the bomb was set off by remote control. The injured included the screen actor Mohanbabu, who is also a member of the upper house of parliament, and the MP Paritala Ravi. Officials said their injuries were not life- threatening.

Police said nobody had claimed responsibility for the bomb, and there was no immediate reaction from political groups in the Indian capital.

The dead included a five-member crew from the television station E-TV, whose car bore the brunt of the blast as it led the convoy. Four vehicles were hit by the explosion.

The state chief minister, N Chandrababu Naidu, who was in New Delhi, said that investigations were being carried out, but that it was too early to draw any conclusions.

Andhra Pradesh state, of which Hyderabad is the capital, has been shaken by a violent campaign by outlawed Maoist insurgents. Seven policemen died and six were wounded on Monday in a landmine explosion about 140 miles north of Hyderabad in the fourth such attack in the past two years.

- Reuters, Hyderabad