A series of coordinated terrorist bomb attacks on Court buildings in Northern India has authorities scrambling to protect the legal system:

At least 10 people were killed and more than 50 injured today in as many as five nearly simultaneous bomb blasts outside court houses in three cities in northern India, the authorities said.

All were in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state. The first blast went off in the state capital, Lucknow, at 1:05 p.m., just outside the entrance to the city court house, near a bicycle stand used by lawyers to park their bikes. Noone was killed.

Television stations broadcast images of lawyers, dressed in their formal legal uniform of black suits, high collars and white ties, fleeing from the area, which was devastated by the blast. Two more explosions went off within five minutes. One was outside the courts in the holy city of Varanasi, killing seven and injuring more than 42. Another went off in Faizabad, again near the entrance to the courts, killing three and injuring at least 10, an official at the police control room in Lucknow confirmed by telephone.

He stressed that that was a preliminary estimate and warned that the toll could rise. Both explosions were believed to have been preceded by smaller blasts.