Bangalore (PTI): A string of nine synchronised low intensity bomb blasts on Friday rocked the IT hub during the busy lunch hour, leaving two killed and injuring 12 others spreading terror.

In a grim reminder of the terror attack at the Indian Institute of Sciences here in December 2005, crude bombs concealed near refugee camps, a drain and a bus shelter stuffed with nuts and bolts, exploded between 1.30 pm and 1.45 pm at Adugodi, Madivala, Nayandahalli, Mysore Road, Richmond Circle, Pantharapalya and Vittal Mallya Road. One explosion occured later in the evening.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil said in New Delhi two persons were killed and 12 injured in the blasts which the state police and the government were fighting shy of calling it a terror attack. They called the explosions an attempt by anti-national and anti-social elements to create panic and disrupt peace.

The farthest the Home Minister would go was to say that Bangalore was always a target of terrorist organisations and "this has happened".

A woman waiting at a bus stop in Madivala on the Bangalore-Hosur Road was killed in the blast, while her husband and another person were seriously injured.

Four of the blasts were between Hosur Road and Madiwala, the other three at Nayandahalli, Vittal Mallya Road and Richmond Circle, City Police Commissioner Shankar Bidari told reporters.

Except in two places, low-intensity explosives were used for the blasts, which occurred within a few minutes of each other, he said.

Police have recovered gelatin sticks, mainly used in quarry operations, from one of the blast sites.