Warnings on travel to India follow attack

Warnings on travel to India follow attack Indian police are probing links between a shooting at a tourist bus in New Delhi and a small explosion in a car nearby, as authorities sought to contain fear ahead of the Commonwealth Games and member countries began issuing warnings about travel to the country.

Two men on a motorcycle opened fire with a sub-machine gun on the minibus outside the biggest mosque in New Delhi on Sunday, injuring two Taiwanese visitors, while a car burst into flames a short distance away.

“The car went up in flames due to a crudely circuited pressure-cooker bomb,” a senior police official said, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

The Delhi government and officials attempted to play down the shooting, saying it was the work of criminals rather than Islamist group Indian Mujahideen, which claimed responsibility.

But a new travel warning from Australia, a key nation in the Commonwealth, will heighten anxiety among athletes travelling to New Delhi with an updated bulletin warning of a “high risk of terrorism”.

And New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key said sports chiefs would decide this week whether to send athletes to however the Games, acting on the advice of security experts.