British honeymooners seriously injured as washing machine bombers bring terror to Maldives

The home-made device - a washing machine motor attached to a gas cylinder and filled with nails - exploded in a park outside a mosque in the capital, Male.

Mr and Mrs Donelan, who live in Qatar, were among 12 tourists were injured, including eight Chinese and two Japanese. All were treated in hospital for burns.

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Mr Donelan, originally from Rotherham, is a keen sportsman and has played hockey for the town's main club, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

He has undergone surgery to treat burns to his arms and legs.

His wife, whose maiden name is Green, suffered more serious burns but both are conscious and able to speak to friends and family by phone.

Mr Donelan's friend Tim Bulleyment told the newspaper: "Christian sounded really rough but he said he was lucky to be alive."

The couple, both thought to be aged in their 30s, married in Italy just two weeks ago before their honeymoon in the Maldives, it was reported.

They had been coming to the end of their holiday when the device exploded near a park in Male, which is on a separate island from Baros where they had been staying.

Local police did not immediately know who had planted the bomb. It is the first time tourists have been injured by a bomb in the group of islands in the Indian Ocean.

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It exploded in Sultan Park at around 2.30pm local time. Police appealed to members of the public to send in any photographs or video footage of the attack. The park was packed with tourists at the time.

Witnesses reported seeing nails scattered in the park before the area was cleared by security forces.

A government spokesman commented last night: "We are taking this very seriously."

A tourist guide said: "After showing the tourists the museum inside the park, we had just reached the gate when I heard a mobile phone ring followed by a loud explosion.

"When I looked back I saw that one of the tourist's legs was on fire. I immediately told the tourist to strip. By that time the skin on his leg was burned.

"Shrapnel, possibly nails, from the bomb struck the tourists, wounding them. Half the hair on the head of one of the guests was completely burned off. The hands were also bleeding from several wounds."

A broken phone, a timer and some masonry nails were recovered.

Eight of the injured were admitted to the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital and four, including the British couple, went to a private hospital called ADK Enterprise.

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Ahmed Afaal, the managing director of ADK, said: "They were in shock and in a lot of pain. I condemn this act. It is bizarre and shocking."

Dr Ahmed Shaheed, former foreign minister for the Maldives, said: "This explosion seems to have been targeted at tourists. I have no idea who did it. The mood is one of shock and dismay but things are calm."

Some 600,000 tourists, including thousands from the UK, visit the idyllic islands each year.

Tourists normally stay on resorts away from the capital but usually pass through Male to get there.

The threat of terrorism is classed as "low" in Foreign Office advice to tourists but some Western diplomats have expressed concern about the potential for violence in the Sunni Muslim country.

A representative from the British High Commission in Sri Lanka is expected to arrive in Male today.

Maldives Home Minister Abdulla Kamaluddin said: "This was a cowardly terrorist attack and something which should never have happened in the Maldives."

He refused to speculate on the target of the bombing - despite all the injured being tourists.

In an interview with local television, the minister said it was too early so say who could be behind it.

But he added: "The attack was planned and executed using materials gathered in the Maldives."

A statement from the Maldives government condemned the attack as an inhuman and degrading act.

It said: "The Maldivian authorities will pursue the culprits and attempt to bring them to justice and give them the harshest punishment within the law."

The Maldives constitution allows for capital punishment in the case of acts against the state.

Police in the Maldives later said two people had been arrested in connection with the blast.

A spokesman said: "The special investigation team is undergoing a systematic search for the offender with the help of forensic analysis."

Government spokesman Mohamed Shareef said that police arrested the suspects hours after the blast last night but no motive has been established yet.