Gorakhpur: Three serial blasts of low intensity in a span of 15 minutes in a crowded shopping area of this temple city on Tuesday evening left four persons including a woman injured.

The crude bombs kept in tiffin boxes and tied to cycles went off at five minutes interval after 7 pm  near Baldev Plaza, Ganesh crossing and Jalkal building in the busy Golghar area creating panic and confusion.

Immediately after the explosions that occurred within an area of 500 metres shopkeepers in the locality and other markets downed their shutters.

According to Inspector General of Police Dilip Trivedi four persons, including a woman, received minor injures in the blasts.

The injured, some of them bleeding, were rushed to the district hospital where doctors said the injuries were minor in nature.

Some motor cycles in the vicinity of the blasts were damaged.

P K Agarwal, Additional District Magistrate, said security has been beefed up in sensitive areas of the city, which recently witnessed communal violence. All exit points from the city has been sealed.

Security around the famous Gorakhnath temple, which has been on the hit list of terrorists, has also been tightened.

Police said the crude bombs were kept in tiffin boxes in new cycles.

"These blasts appeared to have been caused by crude bombs," city police spokesman Avinash Mishra said.

Uttar Pradesh Home Secretary K Chandramouli said 'light' bombs appeared to have been used. He said there was no specific information of the possibility of blast in that area.

The Union Home Ministry is in touch with the State Government, an MHA official said.

"Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta has spoken to the Director General of Police in Lucknow to take stock of the situation," the official said.

Gupta advised the DGP to take adequate steps to see that nothing untoward happens in the wake of the blasts.