Plea for calm after Delhi blasts

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid has appealed for calm after two explosions detonated near his mosque as crowds of Muslim worshippers gathered for Friday prayers.

The low-intensity explosions wounded 13 people and most are expected to survive, Delhi's police commissioner, Dr. K.K. Paul, told CNN's Indian affiliate network, CNN-IBN on Friday.

He contradicted earlier reports that two people had died.

The first explosion went off inside the mosque's complex around 5:30 p.m. (1200 GMT) and the second detonated about 10 minutes later, the imam, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, told CNN-IBN.

The mosque did not suffer significant damage in the blasts.

Both blasts happened near the entrance to the mosque's courtyard, where worshippers wash their feet before they gather inside for prayers.

The courtyard of Jama Masjid can hold as many as 25,000 people.

"People were walking around and suddenly, boom, there was a bomb," Mohammed Salaudi, who was inside the mosque when the first of the explosions took place, told AP.

After the explosions, a crowd gathered outside the mosque complex, shouting slogans.

After the explosions, police cordoned off the area and bomb squads checked for more explosive devices.

Speaking to the crowd, Bukhari said the blasts were a deliberate terrorist attack intended to drive a wedge between India's Hindus and Muslims. He appealed to the crowd to remain calm.

Jama Masjid, one of India's largest and best known mosques, was built in the mid-17th century by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, who also constructed India's most famous building, the Taj Mahal.