Suspected rebels killed a prisoner and wounded four police officers and a passer-by in Indian Kashmir when they lobbed a grenade at a police vehicle Wednesday, police said.

The vehicle was hit while passing through a crowded market in the Batamaloo area of the state capital Srinagar. A passer-by also suffered injuries in the attack.

Twenty-one children have died after eating a free lunch feared to contain poisonous chemicals at a school in eastern India, officials said Wednesday, sparking angry protests as mobs ran riot.

Another 30 children remained ill in hospital after consuming the meal of lentils, vegetables and rice cooked at a village primary school in the dirt-poor state of Bihar on Tuesday.

Twenty children have died after eating a free lunch at a primary school in eastern India, with initial tests showing the food may have contained poisonous chemicals, officials said Wednesday.

Thirty more children remain ill in hospital after consuming lunch cooked at the village school, said the education minister of Bihar state, P. K.Shahi.

Eight children died and 80 others were hospitalized on Tuesday after eating lunch served at their school in eastern India, officials said.

"The eight children died after consuming the midday meal in their school," local Bihar state administrator Abhijit Sinha told Agence France Presse by telephone.

Indian police investigating bomb blasts at one of Buddhism's holiest sites released sketches of a suspect on Tuesday and offered a reward for information about the attacks.

Ten small devices exploded on July 7 in the Bodh Gaya temple complex in the eastern state of Bihar, wounding two monks, while three others were defused at the historic shrine.

Nearly 6,000 pilgrims, tourists and others are believed to have died when flash floods and landslides struck northern India last month, officials said Monday.

The victims were swept away when floods caused by torrential monsoon rains hit the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand in June, destroying entire villages and towns.

Attackers who staged serial blasts at one of Buddhism's holiest sites this week also placed a bomb on a giant stone-carved idol of the Buddha that did not explode, police said Tuesday.

Ten small devices went off early Sunday in the Bodh Gaya temple complex in eastern Bihar state, wounding two monks, while three others were defused before they could explode in the historic shrine.

Chinese police opened fire on Tibetans marking the Dalai Lama's 78th birthday, shooting at least one monk in the head and seriously wounding several other people, two overseas groups said Tuesday.

Security forces disrupted Tibetans in Sichuan province's Daofu county as they carried out rituals to honor their exiled leader, whom Beijing denounces as a separatist, said the US-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) and India-based phayul.com.

Indian police arrested a man on Monday over the weekend attacks at the historic Bodh Gaya Buddhist temple complex and were studying CCTV footage that appeared to show two men planting explosives at the site.

The Indian government condemned the "terror attack" at one of Buddhism's holiest sites after nine small bombs exploded on Sunday morning, wounding two monks at the world-renowned pilgrimage destination in eastern Bihar state.

A two-storey hotel collapsed in the southern Indian city of Secunderabad on Monday, killing at least 12 people and injuring 16 others, police said.

Rescue workers were searching through tonnes of rubble for those still trapped after the incident in Andhra Pradesh state, local police official K. Satyanarayana told Agence France Presse.