Briefcase bomb kills 9 near India's High Court

NEW DELHI — An explosion near a crowded gate to the High Court in New Delhi killed at least nine people on Wednesday, officials said.

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The bomb appeared to have been hidden in a briefcase, Home Ministry official U.K. Bansal told CNN-IBN television channel.

Television images showed scores of lawyers in black coats running from one of the main gates of the building. Police cordoned off the area, not far from parliament and the prime minister's office.

'There was panic everywhere'
Police said Wednesday morning's blast hit an unsecured area outside a gate where the public gathers to enter the court complex. The High Court is an appeals court below India's Supreme Court.

"There was a bomb blast where you enter the court ... there was panic everywhere," witness Kriti Uppal told CNN-IBN.

Home Secretary R.K. Singh told CNN-IBN that the blast killed nine people and wounded 45 others.

It was the first major terror attack in India since a string of bombs exploded in three busy Mumbai neighborhoods on July 13, killing 20 people. Suspicion for those attacks fell on the shadowy extremist network known as the Indian Mujahedeen, though no one has been arrested.

The blast was the second explosion at the High Court this year. On May 25, a small explosion that appeared to be a failed car bomb erupted in the court parking lot.

Pakistani-based militants attacked Mumbai in coordinated assaults that killed 199 people in 2008, raising tensions with nuclear-armed arch rival Pakistan.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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