Delhi rocked by second bombing

BOMB ATTACK: This frame taken from NDTV shows Indian police gathering evidence at the scene of a bomb blast in New Delhi. (AFP)

At least one person was killed and at least a dozen others wounded Saturday in a bomb attack in a crowded shopping area in the Indian capital, police said.

The blast came exactly two weeks after New Delhi was hit by deadly serial blasts claimed by an Islamist militant group called the Indian Mujahideen.

A police officer at the scene said a child was killed in the blast, which hit the congested Mehrauli market in leafy south Delhi. The Times Now news channel said three people were killed.

Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat put the toll at 17 wounded from the bombing.

"A black motorcycle carrrying two people... drove down and hurled a polythene bag containing a box, which exploded when a child picked it up," he told newswire AFP.

"We have cordoned off the area."

The blast took place when afternoon shoppers were out in full force buying for the upcoming Hindu festival season, and sent passers-by fleeing in panic.

"It was a very loud blast and there was thick smoke," said local police officer Mohtab Singh, adding a child under the age of 12 was killed.

Witnesses said blood and broken glass littered the streets.

"My brother has taken five people to hospital," one man at the site told reporters.

Television stations said the blast took place outside a shop in the market.

Some of the injured were in serious condition while six others had been admitted to hospital in critical condition, the Press Trust of India said.

There were now immediate reports of anyone claiming responsibility for the attack.

India is currently gearing up for the Muslim Eid Al-Fitr celebrations marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan and the Hindu festival of lights, Diwali, next month.

The explosion took place two weeks after bomb blasts in New Delhi killed 24 people and injured at least 100.

Several other Indian cities - Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad - have also been by serial bombings since May, all of them claimed by the Indian Mujahideen.

Since the New Delhi attacks two weeks ago, Indian police have launched a major hunt for the suspected ringleaders of the shadowy group.

Over the past week, 11 suspected militants have been arrested and two more were killed in a dramatic shoot-out in a mainly-Muslim area of south Delhi.

The government also unveiled security measures to tackle what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said were "vast gaps" in intelligence gathering.

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