World | India
'People jumped off our running train'
"The blast was so powerful that we thought we were hit by lightning. It shook our market," said shopkeeper Gopi Chand, who witnessed the blast in Khar railway station.
- By Pamela Raghunath, Correspondent
- Published: 00:00 July 11, 2006
Mumbai: "The blast was so powerful that we thought we were hit by lightning. It shook our market," said shopkeeper Gopi Chand, who witnessed the blast in Khar railway station.
Explosions ripped through packed commuter trains during rush hour yesterday in India's commercial capital in what officials said was a well-coordinated bomb attack by terrorists.
Television footage showed dazed commuters with blood dripping from gaping wounds being carried by fellow travellers to waiting ambulances near Mahim station. Others frantically tried to call their relatives on mobile telephones.
Bank officer Bina Nair's workload at her office in Churchgate may have just saved her life. For someone who left office around 5pm and usually reached home in Borivali at 6:30pm, she stayed at the office to catch the 6:26 train from Churchgate.
"From Bombay Central onwards the train dragged on and we did not know why," she told Gulf News. "And then it came to a standstill at Lower Parel when announcements on the train's public address system said there was a signal failure and trains would not be running.
"Several male passengers came and helped us to get down from the trains and we all trekked to the road."
But others were not so lucky. A policeman was shown on television carrying two white, blood-stained bundles of what appeared to be body parts.
One young man sat in a metro station with blood streaming down his face. Another young man buried his face in a white handkerchief and wept. People who were unhurt scrambled off trains and streamed down the tracks to safety.
"People began jumping off our running train when a bomb went off and filled the carriage with smoke and fire," said a commuter with serious injuries to his left arm and shoulder.
The injured were helped out of the mangled compartments, many of which were turned into piles of twisted metal.
Shoes, handbags, clothes and other items littered tracks. Bodies were sprawled on the tracks and were carried in sheets away from the trains.
Firemen scoured the wreckage of the train hit in Matunga rail station. Police said the blasts had occurred on first class carriages of the commuter trains.
An eye witness at Jogeshwari said: "I was standing at Jogeshwari station when the train was just approaching and the blast threw out men from the compartment. I was shocked to see a man's face torn off and others bleeding on the tracks."
Witnesses also saw those hanging on to the doors of crowded trains flying out by the impact of the blast.
An injured passenger at Matunga admitted to the Hinduja Hospital said the first thing on everyone's mind was to escape from the train's carriages. Several injured complained there was stampede at the stations and onlookers hindered relief work.
EMERGENCY HELPLINES:
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