India stepped up security on Tuesday after car bombs killed at least 46 people in Bombay in the worst attack on the country's financial hub in a decade that police suspected was the work of an outlawed Muslim group.

An Indian police official examines a taxi that was destroyed in a bomb blast in Bombay, August 25, 2003. Bombs exploded in India's financial hub Bombay, killing at least 40 persons and injuring more than 125.   [Reuters]

Police in Bombay, the capital New Delhi and several major states tightened security, especially around temples, mosques and public areas, and stepped up spot identity checks after the bombs, which were planted in two taxis.

"We have increased the number of pickets around religious places," said Delhi police spokesman Ravi Pawar.

"Patrolling in markets and crowded areas has been intensified and posters and leaflets are being put up educating the public to be careful about suspicious packages."

Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani was to fly to Bombay to visit some of the 137 people hurt in the explosions, one at a crowded bullion market, the other near the Gateway of India, a huge waterfront arch built by India's former British rulers.

But no one has claimed responsibility so far.

Most deaths were in the market, in a mainly Hindu area.

"There were hands and legs flying in the air, blood everywhere," said jeweller Anil Punjabi. Bloodstained footpaths, broken glass and debris marked the sites.

The blasts were the worst in Bombay since 1993, when a series of bombs killed at least 260 in what was seen as retaliation for the deaths of minority Muslims after Hindu- Muslim riots.

SENSITIVE TIME

Monday's attacks come at a sensitive time for India.

Its most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, is in political crisis after the ruling coalition collapsed, polls are due soon in five states and a new report suggested a Hindu temple predated an ancient mosque in the town of Ayodhya, at the heart of Hindu-Muslim strains and the strife of the early 1990s.

Millions of Hindus are also traveling across the country on a major pilgrimage to a river near Bombay. Police halted one pilgrim train near the city after Monday's blasts, having discovered an attempt to sabotage the track.

And a thaw in relations with nuclear rival Pakistan is at a delicate stage after they came close to war last year.

But although previous attacks have heralded a deterioration in relations with Pakistan, New Delhi held back from criticizing its neighbor this time and Islamabad condemned the bombings.

The attack was the latest in a series to hit the city of almost 15 million in recent months. A bomb on a bus killed three people in December; 12 were killed in March by a bomb on a rush-hour train and in July, two were killed in another bus bombing.

Although Hindu hard-liners had not yet called a strike, as they had done after previous attacks, Monday spooked investors.

Bombay's key 30-share index closed down 2.92 percent after touching 4.4 percent down and markets were expected to open cautiously on Tuesday.

Police have long feared a major attack or communal clashes in Bombay after riots in the nearby western state of Gujarat in 2002 which killed at least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims.

Those riots came after a suspected Muslim mob torched a trainload of Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya, killing 59.

Ayodhya has been a lightning rod for Hindu-Muslim tension since late 1992 when Hindu hard-liners tore down a mosque they said had been built on the birthplace of the Hindu god-king Ram, triggering riots and subsequently the 1993 Bombay bombings.

On Tuesday, a court-ordered report from a team of archaeologists was released, saying they had found evidence of a Hindu temple under the ruins of the mosque and raising fresh fears of strains.

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