Twin Indian Kashmir blasts wound nine policemen

First a grenade was hurled, ten minutes later another device was set off when cops came out to investigate: official.

SRINAGAR: Suspected rebels in Indian Kashmir detonated two blasts outside a police station on Wednesday, injuring nine officers in one of the disputed region's most volatile towns.

Hospital staff said four of the policemen were in a critical condition after the morning attack in Sopore, 55 kilometres north of the provincial summer capital Srinagar.

The officers had rushed outside the station after a grenade was first set off, only to be hit by a much larger improvised bomb placed inside a parked scooter, a Sopore policeman who declined to be named told AFP.

"Ten minutes after the grenade, the militants set off the second device when the cops came out to investigate," he said.

A paramedic at Sopore hospital said nine policemen had been treated for multiple injuries and splinter wounds. Four seriously injured men were then sent to Srinagar for specialist treatment.

Police also said an officer who was targeted in a militant attack on his home in Srinagar last week died of his injuries on Wednesday.

Militant groups in Kashmir have fought against New Delhi's rule for more than 20 years, killing police and soldiers in the highly militarised Himalayan region.