DHAKA (Reuters) - A series of near-simultaneous bomb blasts at four Bangladesh cinemas packed with families celebrating the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan killed 15 people on Saturday and wounded nearly 300, police said.

The bombs went off at movie theaters in and around the normally quiet tourist town of Mymenshingh, 95 miles north of the capital, at 6 p.m.

Home Minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury said the attacks could be the work of Osama bin Laden´s al Qaeda network or some other terror group and ordered a nationwide security alert.

"Police suspect al Qaeda or any other terror groups are behind the bomb blasts," Chowdhury told Reuters. Al Qaeda is the United States´ prime suspect in last year´s September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Chowdhury said political opponents might have been behind the explosions in a bid to try to destabilize the government.

"We are trying to find out who are actually involved in these cruel acts," he said. "The government has ordered a security alert all over the country to prevent any such attempts of terror acts."

The theaters were full of nearly 2,000 men, women and children celebrating the Eid al-Fitr festival at the time, police said.

Doctors said many of the wounded had lost limbs.

"There have been seriously injured people admitted into hospitals. Police have launched an immediate investigation," an officer told Reuters.

Police said no one had yet claimed responsibility for the blasts.

No foreigners were among the dead.

"We have now recovered 14 bodies from the cinemas. The number of deaths may rise," police inspector Abu Taleb told Reuters by telephone.

Doctors said another victim died in hospital, where some 50 victims were lying in critical condition.

Police arrested five suspects from around the bombed cinemas. Troops have cordoned off the debris, witnesses said.

The three-day Eid holidays began on Thursday.

The blasts contrast with recent attacks in Asia, including the October 12 Bali bombings, which have been blamed on Muslim militants and aimed at western targets.

In September, bomb blasts wounded 30 people at a circus in southwestern Satkhira. At least 22 people were killed and more than 100 injured in a bomb blast at a local office of then ruling Awami League in June 2001.

At least nine people were killed and 50 injured in a bomb blast during an open-air concert in 2000.

Most of the attacks were blamed on local criminal or political extremist groups.

Indian newspaper said last month New Delhi intelligence agencies believed bin Laden´s deputy, Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, was in hiding in Bangladesh but Dhaka dismissed the report.

The Hindustan Times quoted an intelligence report as saying Bangladesh, India´s eastern neighbor, had become a haven for bin Laden´s al Qaeda network and that Zawahiri had been in Bangladesh since September.

Last month, Bangladesh said it was investigating if there were 99 camps belonging to Indian rebel groups on its soil.

"A list of 99 camps of rebel groups from India´s northeastern states, as alleged by Indian authorities, is being investigated and the outcome would be conveyed to India," Foreign Secretary Shamsher M. Chowdhury said.

Bangladesh has always denied the presence of Indian rebel groups on its territory.

India and Bangladesh share a 2,500-mile border where smuggling and other illegal activities are common. Mymenshingh is 25 miles away. (© Reuters 2002 12/07/02)