The casualty count is mounting as officials get a better handle on the situation in the aftermath of the attacks today in Bombay:
At least 147 people were killed and around 439 injured, many seriously, as seven powerful blasts ripped through packed train cars and on stations during rush hour on Tuesday evening in the worst terror attack in India in over a decade.
Top police officials admitted that the well-coordinated strikes, the worst in Mumbai since 1993 when 13 serial bomb attacks killed at least 270 people, were completely unexpected and led to fear that was eventually overcome by Mumbaikers’ known resilience.
Starting at 6.25 pm at Khar station, one deafening explosion after another took place in quick succession at or near railway stations at Mahim, Jogeshwari, Borivili, Bhayander, Matunga and the Khar-Santa Cruz subway – all on the Western Railway network.
Most deaths occurred instantly in the first class train compartments as the powerful bombs that had been smuggled into them went off, throwing off bodies or body parts on to tracks and creating pandemonium.
Many died while jumping out of trains that had caught fire.
Train carriages turned into complete wrecks, the steel doors and windows torn apart, the roofs blown up and seats flung on to railway tracks, with bloodstains everywhere.
“There were gory scenes anywhere,” said Mahadev, a middle-aged man who was travelling on one of the trains that suffered a blast. “We ran to the compartment where the bomb went off. The roof had blown up. There was smoke everywhere.”
Another witness, a woman, said: “I saw people hanging from the train compartments. What I was really horrific. There were limbs on railway tracks.”
In the absence of stretchers, dead bodies were dumped into bed covers and taken home.
I’m trying to ferret out the political implications in India of these attacks. I’ll keep you informed on my progress.
UDPATE: Metroblogging Mumbai has a tremendous amount of interesting background info.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Dilip D’Souza, blogging from Bombay, has multiple posts on his personal reactions to the bombings. Just keep scrolling.
