Two persons, including Chairman of Sivaganga Municipality in Tamil Nadu, killed in explosion in a car.
SIVAGANGA (TN): Two persons, including Sivaganga Municipality Chairman P Murugan, were killed and 10 injured when a powerful bomb blast ripped through his car in front of the Municipal Office here on Friday.
Police, quoting eyewitnesses, said the bomb exploded the moment Murugan, a leader of the state's ruling DMK, got into his car at 1.30 pm after finishing work at the office near the bus stand.
Ten passengers of a Madurai-bound bus, which was passing by at the time of the blast, were injured by debris from the car that hit them.
The explosion was so powerful that the roof of the car was shattered into pieces and fell far away.
Murugan, whose legs were blown away, and his driver Pandi were rushed to the Government Rajaji Hospital at Madurai but died on the way.
The seriously injured bus passengers, who were admitted to the Sivaganga Government Hospital, had been shifted to the Rajaji Hospital after first aid, hospital sources said.
It was a gory scene at the site of the explosion as flesh and parts of bodies were found sprayed all over.
Tension prevailed in the town and all shops in and around bus stand had been closed following the incident.
The schools in the town had also been closed.
District Collector M A Siddique visited the spot and arranged for rushing the injured persons to the hospital.
Police had been deployed around the town at all sensitive points and were monitoring the situation, police said.
Murugan belonged to a group led by Rama Sivaraman, a former MLA from Tirupattur assembly constituency.
There was rivalry between this group and another group in the DMK led by state HR and CE Minister K R Periakaruppan over capturing the chairmanship of the municipality in local body elections last year and this had continued after the polls.
Murugan contested the polls as a rival candidate after the DMK fielded a supporter of Periakaruppan and won the election.
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