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HYDERABAD: A suspected terror attack at the historic Mecca mosque here on Friday claimed 14 lives and injured 50 after a powerful remote-controlled bomb ripped through a gathering of thousands offering Friday prayers.

Nine persons were believed to have been killed due to the blast, while there was confusion whether the other three succumbed to injuries or in subsequent police firing on people protesting in the aftermath of the explosion.Three live bombs were detected at the mosque in the communally sensitive Charminar area and defused — two immediately after the blast at 1.30 pm in an area where ablutions are performed and the third later in the evening near the gate.Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy confirmed five deaths in the blast but police and official sources put the toll at 12.

Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta said in Delhi that the blast appeared to have a terror link while Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy said it was an act of “intentional sabotage” by anti-social elements opposed to communal amity.

No group claimed responsibility for the blast which state police chief S A Basith said was remotely triggered with a mobile phone.

The bomb exploded when thousands of people were gathered in the mosque for Friday prayers, DCP, South Zone, Kanta Rao, said.

The injured, some of them bleeding profusely, were rushed to Osmania and other hospitals by the worshippers in whatever modes of transport they could arrange. Police said the death toll could rise. “Four of them are in a serious condition,” Dr Sreenivas of the hospital said.

The explosion created such a panic that those gathered for the prayers started running towards the exit gate of the mosque, said to be over 300 years old and considered sacred by Muslims in and outside the state.

A large posse of police personnel, who arrived on the scene, faced an angry crowd, who pelted stones at them and the shops in the vicinity. Police resorted to lathicharge to
disperse the crowd.