Mumbai Bomb Blast Photographs - 11 July 2006

Seven blasts rocked suburban trains in Mumbai on Tuesday evening, Police Commissioner A N Roy has said. The police control room has reported that 139 passengers have been killed and more than 300 injured. PTI reports that the blasts took place in a span of 30 minutes in first class compartments of suburban trains.

As the blasts ripped apart train compartments, mangled bodies of passengers were hurled out and survivors, many of them bleeding profusely, jostled to come out, leading to chaotic scenes. The blasts occured between 6 pm and 6.30 pm at Matunga, Mahim (central Mumbai), Bandra, Khar (in north-west Mumbai), Borivili, Jogeshwari and Mira Road railway stations (in north Mumbai).

Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf, who was at Mahim railway station soon after reports of the blast came in, said he could see one train compartment was completely blown up in the explosion, and people were carrying bodies away. Commuters said an explosion went off in the men's first class compartment on a Western Railway local, which left Churgate station in South Mumbai at 1754, as it was leaving Mahim station on track 3 at around 1820 hours.

A fire brigade official who came on the scene later said he believes that more than 25 injured were removed from the bombed out compartment.

Advocate Chandrakant Dalvi, who was travelling to his home in Dahisar by this compartment, was sitting on the tracks in a daze when rediff.com's reporters met him. He said he could not hear anything in his left ear. He had already got in touch with his relatives to say he was safe, but he had not told them that he was on the train. The fire brigade personnel were sending him to the nearest hospital for a check-up. He said he would take a cab and go home.

Around the tracks seat-cushioning material was lying around, among chappals and shoes and bags. Luggage removed from the compartment was lying on the other side.

Outside the station the road had been cordoned off and two fire engines were posted. But onlookers could view the wreckage from the footbridge and the road.

Two local trains were halted on either side of the bombed train and there was a rush of people leaving the station who were hitching rides home with lorries and tempos.

TV channel CNN-IBN was reporting that atleast 15 people were killed in the Matunga/Mahim blast.

The Western Railway has suspended its suburban services soon after the blasts. Local telephone lines were jammed as panic-stricken commuters called their near and dear ones to alert them of the blasts. Commuters said there was no sign of the police even 30 minutes after the blasts.

A PTI reporter at Santa Cruz station said a blast rocked a Borivali-bound local at 1824 hours, and seven to eight injured commuters jumped out of the speeding train in panic.

At least 10 bodies were brought to the KEM Hospital in central Mumbai, and another 20 seriously injured people were admitted to it.

A few more injured were reportedly taken to the government hospital at Sion in central Mumbai, Bhabha Hospital and V N Desai Hospital from the blast sites in western Mumbai suburbs, hospital sources said.

The police have cordoned off all railway stations on the Western line and strict frisking and checking was being carried out at the Central and Harbour sections of local train services.

Police suspect that it is a pre-planned subversive plot similar to the explosions that had rocked Mumbai in 1993, 2002 and 2003.







Five blasts rock Srinagar :


Five bomb explosions rocked Jammu and Kashmir's capital Srinagar on Tuesday, killing six people and injuring 38.

Five tourists from West Bengal were killed and 12 injured when militants lobbed a hand grenade at a minibus at Dalgate area in uptown Srinagar. Three tourists were killed on the spot while two succumbed to injuries later in the hospital.

The injured were taken to the SMHS hospital. Among the dead are three women. Attending doctors described the condition of two of the injured tourists as critical.

On May 31, two buses carrying tourists from Kolkata were attacked at the same spot, which is known as the hub of tourist activity. One tourist was killed and 18 others were wounded in the explosions.

Militants then struck in the Regal Chowk area. Six people were injured when militants hurled a hand grenade on a Maruti car, police said. The car was extensively damaged in the attack.

In the afternoon, militants lobbed a hand grenade at a passing vehicle in city centre Lal Chowk, injuring five persons. Police said, a labourer, hailing from Bihar, succumbed to his injuries in the hospital. Minutes later, another grenade explosion resulted in injuries to five persons in the adjacent Abi-Guzar area.

The last explosion was triggered off near the tourist reception centre in uptown Srinagar late this afternoon. Ten people -- seven from Jammu, two locals and a tourist from West Bengal -- were injured in the attack. In a rare instance, passers-by caught a suspected militant and handed him over to police soon after he lobbed a grenade on a vehicle near the tourist reception centre, officials said.


Mohammad Afzal, a resident of Nesbal in Baramulla district, was handed over to a police party that was patrolling the area, officials said, adding that he was later taken to an undisclosed location for interrogation.

Meanwhile, the injured have been shifted to the nearby SMHS hospital, police said, adding that so far, no militant outfit has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Additional police and paramilitary forces have been deployed in Srinagar and all passing vehicles are being searched.