New Delhi ? Two bombs exploded Saturday night in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, killing at least 37 people and seriously injuring 50, officials said.

The first bomb went off just after 7:30 p.m. in an amusement park during a laser light show, killing nine people in an area filled with families.

About 10 minutes later, a second bomb tore through a popular restaurant, according to news reports. Television images showed terrified families grabbing their children and jumping over security barriers to get out while thick plumes of black smoke and dust clouded the air. Bloodied victims rushed from the scene of the attack, in the city’s popular Kothi market.

“This is a terrorist act,” Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, the chief minister for Andhra Pradesh state, said at a televised news conference.

“We heard the blast and people started running out past us,” PK Verghese, the security manager at the laser show, told the Associated Press. “Many of them had blood streaming off them. It was complete chaos.”

Hyderabad, a city of around 6 million, has a long history of communal violence between Muslims and Hindus. On May 18, a bombing at one of India’s largest and most historically important mosques, the Mecca Masjid, killed 11 people as Friday prayers were ending.

Hyderabad has recently become a symbol of India’s economic boom, an increasingly cosmopolitan center and hub of software and call-center jobs. The city has a thriving Muslim quarter and is renowned as a center of Islamic culture.

Officials said the attacks on Saturday were an attempt by “anti-social elements” to spark a wave of communal violence. There was no immediate assertion of responsibility.

Several bombings have taken place in India in the past two years. On July 11, 2006, bombs exploded on seven commuter trains and railway stations in Mumbai, the country’s financial and cultural capital, killing more than 200 people. The bombings, India’s most deadly attack in 13 years, were blamed on Islamic militants based in Pakistan.