THREE bombs ripped through India’s commercial capital Mumbai on Wednesday, killing 21 people and injuring more than 100 in the deadliest attack in the city since the 2008 assault by Islamist militants.
The strongest of the coordinated blasts hit busy districts in the south of the city, the same area targeted two and half years ago by Pakistan-based militants who caused mayhem during a 60-hour siege that left 166 people dead.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who was on his way to the scene along with forensic experts and anti-terror commandos from New Delhi, told reporters that it was ‘a coordinated attack by terrorists.’ The most intense devices exploded at a wholesale gold market and a district housing diamond traders and jewellery shops in southern Mumbai, while a third blast occurred in a middle-class area to the north.
‘It is another attack on the heart of India,’ said the chief minister of Maharashtra state, Mr Prithviraj Chavan, who described it as a ‘challenge to Indian sovereignty’. The home ministry gave the death toll and said 141 injured victims had been taken to 11 city hospitals, many of them in a serious condition.
All three bombs, which Mr Chavan said had been detonated with timers, were reported within a 15-minute period, starting at around 6.50pm (1320 GMT, 9.20pm Singapore time).
Fashion photographer Rutavi Metha heard a ‘massive’ explosion and ran towards the site of the bomb in the gold market area known as Zaveri Bazaar. ‘There were bodies on the ground and a lot of blood. Local people were trying to help, picking up the injured and putting them in cars to drive them to hospital,’ she said.
PHOTO: AFP
hi there, wonderful blog, and an amazing understand! one for my bookmarking.
Amazing knowledge! I have been hunting for something similar to this for a while now. Many thanks!