Seven explosions ripped through the first-class compartments of suburban trains on the Western Railway on Tuesday evening
MUMBAI: Seven explosions ripped through the first class compartments of suburban trains on the Western Railway on Tuesday evening killing more than 150 people and injuring at least 400.
The blasts occurred within a span of 11 minutes from 6.24pm to 6.35pm, throwing peak-hour rail traffic completely out of gear. Suburban train services on the Western line were suspended.
“We are trying to start skeletal services by late Tuesday night and hope to start full services by Wednesday afternoon,” said Pranay Prabhakar, chief public relations officer, Western Railway.
The scene at the Matunga, Mahim, Bandra, Khar, Jogeshwari, Borivli, and Mira Road railway stations was heartrending with bloodied limbs and some bodies strewn around and others stuck in the wreckage.
The police suspect a module of the terrorist Lashkar-e-Tayiba for carrying out the attack. “Obviously a terrorist outfit is behind the blasts because a normal human being could not have done this,” said Police Commissioner AN Roy. “We are investigating who is responsible for this dastardly act.”
Hours after the blasts, ambulances were delivering the dead and injured to overwhelmed hospitals. “I’ve been here for hours taking the bodies inside. Some of them have no eyes, no hands, no arms,” said Bunty Jain, a shopkeeper who had joined the throng outside KEM hospital at Parel to help.
“The blast was so powerful that we thought we were hit by lightning. It shook our market,” said shopkeeper Gopi Chand, who witnessed the explosion in Khar.
The injured have been shifted to VN Desai, KEM, Cooper, Bhabha, Sion, Lilavati, and Hinduja hospitals. CM Vilasrao Deshmukh said private hospitals have been asked to admit the injured. He and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad each announced Rs1 lakh as compensation to the families of those killed and Rs50,000 to those injured.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appealed for calm after an emergency meeting, which declared a state of high alert across the country and increased security at all major airports and railway stations.
Also Read:
• ‘I jumped out of train immediately’
• City goes on drip, hospitals flooded
• He heard them discuss planting the explosives
• Intelligence smells LeT hand in blasts
• Metropolis sees red: City keeps its cool, limps to normal
• Chaos on road, but air traffic not affected
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