Blast in Bengaluru; 1 woman killed, 3 injured

BENGALURU: One woman died of wounds in an IED explosion on the busy Church Street in the heart of Bengaluru and three others were injured, triggering a red alert in the IT capital of the country and punctuating the run-up to New Year festivities with alarm late on Sunday. Bhavani, 37, succumbed to her wounds in a hospital, while her nephew Karthik, 21, was being treated. The two others injured were friends who had just finished dinner and stepped out of a restaurant, Coconut Grove. The place where the bomb went off is just a few feet away from The Times of India office. Police commissioner M N Reddi told reporters it was a "low-intensity explosion" triggered by an improvised explosive device. Police suspect the bomb was kept in a cloth bag between a row of plants and the compound wall of Coconut Grove. The family was in front of the main gate when the device went off. Bhavani took the brunt of the blast and was thrown to the middle of the road. Passersby bundled the injured into an autorickshaw and took them to Mallya Hospital.   TOI