Blasts delay Bangalore-Mumbai match

Bangalore:

The match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians on Saturday was delayed after two low-intensity explosions took outside gate no 12 of the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore.

The match was to begin at 4 pm while the toss was scheduled for 3.30 pm. There was huge security at the stadium.

The players were asked to go back to the dressing room for 10 minutes, but they were back on the ground warming up. Mumbai have already qualified for the semi-finals but Bangalore are close to securing a last-four place.

The stadium was packed with 40,000 spectators at the time of blasts.

The reasons of the blasts are yet not known but early reports suggest they could have been caused by crude bombs.

Eight people have been injured, mostly policemen and security personnel. Police are carrying out extensive searches outside the stadium and there are huge jams. An outside wall of the stadium has been damaged.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has said it is too early to know the nature of the blast, but early information suggested it could have been a crude bomb. The the local police said it was not an accidental blast. It was not a generator blast, the Bangalore Police Commissioner said.

The Police Commissioner said the explosive material had probably been placed between a poster and a wall.

Later in the evening another bomb was found near Gate no. 8 but it was successfully defused.