BOMBAY, August 25 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - At least 44 people were killed in two car bombings that rocked India's commercial hub Bombay on Monday, August 25.

Indian State Health Minister Digvijay Khanvilkar confirmed at least 29 deaths, but hospital sources put the death toll at 44, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

B.D. Mahajan, superintendent at J.J. Hospital, told AFP earlier that 26 people were brought in dead and that two more succumbed to their injuries during treatment.

An official at another hospital, Saint George, had also said that 13 people had died there.

Police Joint Commissioner Ahmed Javed said around 100 people were injured at the explosions, one of them hit a car park near the historic Gateway of India monument in the south of the city, a major tourist attraction.

The BBC, however, put at 130 the number of the injured.

Authorities examine a taxi that was destroyed in the bomb blasts

The blasts were so powerful they destroyed a number of private vehicles, hurling metal parts of vehicles meters (yards) into the air, and threw a number of people into the sea.

Private television networks reported at least four blasts but the authorities said only two explosions - both bombs left on the back seats of parked taxis.

Sniffer dogs are being used to check whether any of the other cars in the parking lot adjacent to the Gateway of India has explosives, the BBC's correspondent at the scene said.

"The building we were in shook and we heard a loud noise," Ingrid Alva, a public relations consultant, was quoted as saying.

"I rushed out and saw the crowds at the Gateway of India... We saw some body parts lying around, before we were told to move away by police," he added.

Bombay was in the eye of bloody Hindu-Muslim riots following the 1992 demolition of the ancient Babri mosque in the northern Indian town of Ayodhya.

India’s national capital New Delhi was put on a high security alert after the explosions.

The city's entire police force, particularly those deployed at vital installations, were ordered to stay on high alert, an official said, adding that reinforcements were being rushed to markets and public places.

The western state of Maharashtra, of which Bombay is the capital, also went on a full security alert against possible trouble.

So far no one has claimed responsibility for the two blasts.

But the BBC correspondent said the attacks marked a clear attempt to hit the country's financial and commercial heart.

The key Bombay Stock Exchange index fell nearly 3 percent or 121 points at 4003.93 on the news, while the National Stock Exchange index fell 3.57 percent.

Bombay has been prey to a string of deadly bombings in 1993 which left at least 300 people dead and scores more injured in then the deadliest urban terror attack, with the most recent, on a bus, killing three in July.

The BBC News Online reported that Police blamed that attack on Pakistan's Lashkar-e-Toiba, one of two groups that Delhi blames for the December 2001 attack on its parliament which left 15 people dead, including five attackers.

Condemnation

But Pakistan condemned as an "act of terror" the devastating blasts.

"We deplore these attacks and we sympathize with the victims and their families," Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan told a weekly press conference Monday.

"Civilians have been targeted, according to the reports that we have seen.

"We condemn all acts of terror and I think that such wanton targeting of civilians should be condemned in the strongest possible terms."

Relations between India and Pakistan have begun to thaw in recent times after the Indian premier offered a hand of friendship to Pakistan on April 18, which was immediately reciprocated by Pakistan.

Since then the two countries have traded good gestures crowned by the resumption of diplomatic ties and air links.