'Deafening' blasts shook hotels near Mahabodhi temple

The hotels close to the Mahabodhi temple complex shook due to the impact of the serial blasts, causing tourists and pilgrims to run out in panic.

The hotels close to the Mahabodhi temple complex shook due to the impact of the serial blasts, causing tourists and pilgrims to run out in panic.

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A local resident near Mahabodhi temple said the blasts made the hotels, where a number of tourists were staying, shake.

"The blasts made the buildings shake and all the people of the hotels, comprising foreigners and tourists, come out wondering what had happened," a local resident told a TV channel.

Eight successive blasts hit the 1,500-year old Mahabodhi temple at Bodh Gaya on Sunday morning in what the government has described as a terror attack.

A Buddhist monk at the shrine said the blasts were deafening.

"Two monks - one from Myanmar and one from Tibet - have been badly injured," the witness told reporters.

Another monk said it is "very unfortunate that security has to be beefed up in a religious place where actually there should be freedom".