At least six explosions rocked the railway network in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, during the evening rush hour on Tuesday, officials from the state-run railway told the Press Trust of India.
The blasts, which injured an unknown number of people, occurred at packed railway stations in the Matunga, Khar, Santacruz, Jogeshwari, Borivali and Bhayendar localities in and around Mumbai, the national news agency said.
CNN quoted officials saying at least 40 people died in the blasts and hundreds were injured, and reported that the country, including all airports, has been put on high alert. Television footage showed railway carriages split in half by the explosions.
CNN also said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Cabinet were in an emergency meeting on the blasts.
The blasts occurred within minutes of each other, with the first taking place at 6.24pm in a crowded train carriage at Khar, officials said.
”The fourth carriage is completely wrecked and we have seen between eight and 10 heavily injured people being brought out,” said a witness, local shopkeeper Gopi Chand. ”The blast was so powerful that we thought we were hit by lightning. It shook our market.”
Television footage showed dazed commuters with blood dripping from gaping injuries being carried by fellow travellers to waiting ambulances near Mahim station. Others frantically tried to call their relatives on cellphones.
”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 at Mahim station.
Firemen scoured the wreckage of a train that was hit by a blast in Matunga rail station. Police said the blasts had occurred on first-class carriages of the commuter trains.
The sprawling city, which is noted for its extensive underworld, has seen several bombings in the past. It was rocked in 1993 by a series of blasts which killed about 250 people and injured more than 1 000.
On March 9, two separate blasts rocked the holy Hindu city of Varanasi, leaving more than a dozen killed and scores injured.
Police have blamed Muslim underground figures or Kashmiri militants for most of the blasts. — AFP, staff reporter
