Five killed by bombs in Maharashtra, Gujarat

By Bappa Majumdar

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - At least five people were killed and dozens injured in two separate bomb explosions in western India on Monday, officials and doctors told Reuters.

One of the blasts killed four people and wounded 20 to 25

in the communally sensitive town of Malegaon in Maharashtra, police and doctors said.

"Among the victims is a 10-year-old child," said Bharat Wagh, a doctor at a Malegaon hospital treating the casualties.

"Most of those wounded have splinter injuries which can be caused by a bomb," Wagh told Reuters from the textile town, which has a history of violence between Hindus and Muslims.

More than 35 people were killed there in coordinated bomb attacks in and around a mosque in 2006.

The other bomb, which appeared to have been set off by a timer, killed one person and injured several at a market in the town of Modasa in Gujarat, officials said.

"I have news of one person dead and seven injured," Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah told reporters. Local television said two people had died in the attack, but police denied this.