New Delhi, India (CNN) -- A 2-year-old girl was killed and at least 32 people were injured when a temple in Varanasi, India, was hit in a terror attack on Tuesday, officials said.
The officials said the incident occurred during Hindu prayers outside the temple in the northeastern Indian holy city, and it came a day after the anniversary of a seminal event in India -- the 1992 razing of a Muslim mosque in Ayodhya.
Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai told CNN-IBN that the blast was a terror strike carried out by Indian Mujahedeen, a Muslim militant group. He said an alert was issued in New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore in the wake of the blast.
Inspector General of Varanasi Rajendra Pal Singh confirmed the death and the injuries, saying that three of those hurt were foreigners -- two Italians and one Japanese. Of the 32, one Indian is in critical condition.
CNN-IBN quoted officials saying that people "were injured in the blast but the numbers increased because a railing broke". That led "to a small stampede"
"We did not have specific information that this would happen in Varanasi, but December 6 is the anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition, so we were on high alert in sensitive areas, and Varanasi is definitely a sensitive area," U.K. Bansal, secretary of internal security of the Home Affairs Ministry, told CNN. CNN
