Two blasts went off almost simultaneously in bars in Sofia on the evening of September 7 2008, injuring six people, including a pregnant woman.

According to the police, the bars were illegal brothels.

The two bombs exploded within some 10 minutes, Dnevnik daily reported.

At about 11.20 pm, a blast went off in the striptease bar Panterite (meaning "The Panthers" in Bulgarian), near the crossing of Bulgaria and Vitosha boulevards. One of two people injured was a 36-year-old man, who was believed to be the bar's manager. His feet were severed. Both victims were hospitalised in the Military Medical Academy. Dnevnik quoted unofficial information as saying that the bomb had been placed at the bar's entrance.

Some 10 minutes later, a second blast went off in another bar, Casablanca, in the Hipodrouma borough. Two men, aged 30 and 53, were injured in the explosion. Focus news agency quoted witnesses as saying that one of them suffered severe blood loss and that the other was mutilated. Flying glass injured two women, one of whom was pregnant, Dnevnik said. According to Bulgarian National Television, the two were prostitutes, working in the bar. Kapital weekly wrote that the place was famed as brothel. Witnesses claimed that most of the clients and personnel of the bar had left the building before the arrival of the police, Kapital said.

The Interior Ministry's media statement offered slightly different information, in which it was written that the Casablanca blast injured two men, aged 30 and 55, and three women.

The statement confirmed that both bars offered sex services. The bomb in Casablanca was placed near the window of the bar, while the one in Panterite was placed inside the bar. The bomb contained an equivalent of 200g of TNT.

Dnevnik quoted Interior Ministry chief secretary Pavlin Dimitrov as saying that the two blasts were related. Police would investigate probable settling of accounts or elimination of competition.