Scene at the blast site on Barakhamba Road in Connaught Place, New Delhi, on Saturday. Photo:V.V.Krishnan.

New Delhi (PTI): At least 18 people were killed and 70 injured in five serial blasts in a span of 45 minutes when terrorists targeted three crowded market areas in the heart of the Capital this evening.

Bringing back memories of the pre-Diwali terror strike in Sarojini market in 2005 that left 68 dead, the blasts rocked Connaught place, about a km from Parliament, Ghaffar market in Karol Bagh in Central Delhi and the M Block market in posh Greater Kailash in South Delhi.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil said 18 people have died and many others injured in five blasts that took place in a span of 45 minutes.

Patil said the blasts have been engineered by people who want to create disharmony and disturb the social texture and expressed confidence that their designs would be defeated by people maintaining social harmony.

Indian Mujahideen, a shadow amalgam of banned SIMI and Lashker-e-Taiba, claimed responsibility for the blasts through an e-mail sent to news organisations around the same time when the blasts took place.

A young boy claiming to be an eye-witness said that two men in black clothes planted something in a dustbin in the Central Park in Connaught place which exploded later.