Rupam Jain Nair, Reuters

AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) - At least 16 small bombs exploded in the Indian city of Ahmedabad on Saturday, killing at least 18 people and wounding 110, a day after another set of blasts in the country's IT hub, officials said.

On Friday, eight bombs exploded in quick succession in the southern information technology city of Bangalore, killing at least one person and wounding six others.

Saturday's blasts were in Ahmedabad's crowded old city dominated by its Muslim community. One was in a metal tiffin box, used to carry food, another apparently left on a bicycle.

"This has been done by some terrorist group which wants to destabilize the country," the central government's junior home minister Shriprakash Jaiswal told the Sahara news channel.

There were two separate series of bombings, the first near busy market places. A second quick succession of bombs went off 20 to 25 minutes later around a hospital, where several people died, police said.