One person was killed and 35 others were critically wounded when car bomb exploded in Lal Mandi-Gojibagh area of Srinagar's [Images] Jawahar Nagar on Wednesday morning, a senior police officer said.

The explosion occurred near a traffic crossing outside a private clinic at around 1045 IST, Deputy Inspector General of Police H K Lohia said.

The police said those injured were rushed to nearby hospitals.

Three passing paramilitary vehicles and several shops were destroyed.

• Complete Coverage: The Road to Peace

Security forces sealed the area.

The sound of the blast was so powerful that it was heard in Regal Chowk, Lal Chowk and other areas, nearly four km away, they said.

Windowpanes of buildings and shops in the vicinity were smashed and a few buildings in Regal Chowk area developed cracks.

Senior police and civil officials rushed to the site to take stock of the situation.

Seven Central Reserve Police Force personnel, including a deputy commandant were among those injured in the blast, a CRPF spokesman said.

• Complete Coverage: Musharraf in India

Al Nasreen, one of the four outfits that threatened to disrupt the launch of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service in April, claimed responsibility for the explosion.

It has warned of more such attacks in the Kashmir valley.

A caller introducing himself as an al Nasreen spokesman told news organisations that activists of the outfit carried out the attack and that they targeted the Central Reserve Police Force.

He said the blast was aimed at exposing chinks in the security arrangements with the reopening of Civil Secretariat and other offices in the summer capital on Monday.

WITH PTI INPUTS