PHOTO: PTI/ COURTESY: STAR NEWS

THE AFTER-EFFECT: A bicycle at the spot of one of the three bomb blasts in Gorakhpur on Tuesday.

LUCKNOW: Six persons were injured as three serial bomb blasts rocked Gorakhpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday. The blasts in a row occurred around 7 p.m. in and around the busy Golghar area of the town.

The State Government has sounded a high alert. A Home Department spokesman said security around vital installations and religious places was tightened. Vigil along the Indo-Nepal border, about 100 km from Gorakhpur, has been intensified.

Principal Secretary (Home), K. Chandramouli said the blasts were being investigated.

Mr. Chandramouli said there was no need for panic as efforts to disturb the peace would not be allowed.

He said senior police officials, including the Inspector-General, Gorakhpur Zone, DIG Range and the SSP rushed to the site of the blasts and the situation was under control.

The bombs were kept in tiffin boxes attached to two cycles and a motorcycle. The blasts occurred within a span of five minutes, sending the people in the busy commercial area into a panic.

The first blast occurred at Baldev Plaza, followed by the one near the Jalkal (Water Works) building in Golghar. The third bomb went off near Park Hotel.

Though no organisation has claimed responsibility for the blasts, investigating agencies have not ruled out the hand of a terrorist outfit, as the blasts took place on a Tuesday in a busy commercial area like Golghar, visited by hundreds of people after office hours.

PTI reports:

Immediately after the blasts shopkeepers in the locality and other markets downed shutters, even as police sealed all exit points from the city.

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