Police are trying from eyewitness accounts to arrive at a possible time when the bombs could have been planted around the city. A security guard at a store at one of the sites has told police investigators that at around 7 am on Friday morning he saw a “plastic bucket-like” object near the trash area while he was watering plants in the shop yard. Bangalore city police officials who questioned people at the site of the discovery of the unexploded bomb have reported that people saw it lying there on the night of July 24 — nearly 12 hours before the blast.

“It was used as a stool to sit on by some local street vendors and an alarm was raised on Saturday morning after some one noticed wires emerging from the plastic encasing,” a police official said.