|
|
|
| Sunday, 30 October 2005 |
 |
|
 |
World |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Explosions rock Indian capital NEW DELHI, Oct 29 (AFP) Powerful explosions ripped through crowded market areas in New Delhi moments apart on Saturday, killing at least 16 people as shoppers in the Indian capital were gearing up for a major Hindu holiday. More than 60 people were reported injured by the blasts, which hit the popular Paharganj bazaar area popular with locals and Western budget tourists as well as the Gole and Sarojini Nagar markets. Police commissioner K.K Paul said detectives were looking at the possibility that the blasts were the work of militants but had no further immediate details about the cause. "We have seen badly-burned bodies littering the market in Sarojini Nagar," a photographer on the scene said, adding that a fierce blaze had engulfed much of the area. "Most of them are children who had set up food stalls." The blasts occurred in rapid succession early Saturday evening in heavily crowded areas where tens of thousands of shoppers were preparing for Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights that starts Tuesday. "We received a total of four (blast) calls but one was a hoax," New Delhi fire department spokesman Satya Prakash told AFP. "In the remaining three, our fire trucks are working to bring out people who are injured as well as the bodies," he said. "From the feedback we are getting from our trucks, the situation is grisly." Ambulances and fire trucks raced back and forth through the city as police reinforcements cordoned off the blast sites, where shops had been torn apart from the force of the explosions, leaving piles of wreckage in the streets. Television pictures showed one victim being wrapped up in a cloth. A woman with a dark stain on her blouse, mouth open in apparent, was placed on a stretcher which emergency workers then raced away from the scene. Police commissioner Paul said special squads were at the locations where the blasts took place. Witnesses said some people had been seriously wounded, and the scene on the ground was chaotic. Indian police sounded a maximum security alert in New Delhi, and other market areas were reportedly ordered to close. The Press Trust of India said at least 16 people had been killed and more than 60 people were wounded. Local television channels said at least 25 people were dead. The blasts came a little more than two weeks after the US embassy in New Delhi issued a public warning about possible terrorist attacks in the Indian capital and other cities, including suicide bombings. |
|
| News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
