Saturday, May 7 2005 18:24 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Yangon (Myanmar): Several dozen people were killed today when four near-simultaneous bomb explosions struck the Myanmar capital in Yangon's deadliest bomb attack in years, witnesses at the blast sites and a Thai diplomat said.

Hospital officials said up to 200 people were wounded in the blasts.

"I counted as many as 20 people dead, some of them with their heads missing and their limbs missing," a witness who survived the blast at the Dagon shopping centre in downtown Yangon told AFP.

A witness at a second blast site, at Junction 8 shopping centre 13 kms north of the city centre, said she counted "at least 40 bodies being brought out of the building" where two bombs exploded at about 3:00 pm (1400 IST).

An official in Myanmar's military government confirmed four bombs were detonated but had no official word on the casualty count.

Staff at Yangon General Hospital said they were rapidly inundated with dead and wounded.

"We cannot say how many people are dead, but we have received about 200 injured people," an emergency services official at the hospital said, with the urgent cries of other staff and the wounded echoing in the background.

A bomb also detonated at the Yangon Trade Centre which was hosting a Thai trade exhibition, killing at least three people, according to a Thai diplomat.

"At Yangon Trade Centre at least three people died and more than 10 people were injured, all Myanmar nationals," the diplomat said.