New Delhi, India – It was one of the year’s busiest shopping days.
People strolled through crowded markets of the Indian capital strung with colored bulbs, buying boxes of extra-sugary sweets often given as gifts during the Hindu festival of lights.
Then the pleasantly cool Saturday evening exploded in fire and terror.
“There was black smoke everywhere,” said Babu Lal Khandelwal, a shopkeeper. “When the smoke was cleared and I could see, there were people bloody and people lying in the street.” All around him, the Paharganj market was a ruin of mangled shops, twisted metal and body parts after the 5:45 p.m. explosion.
Within minutes, another blast ripped through the popular Sarojini Nagar shopping area, followed by a bombing on a bus in the Govindpuri neighborhood. At least 58 people were killed and dozens wounded.
Police declared a state of emergency and closed all city markets. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urged calm while denouncing the apparently coordinated bombings.
“These are dastardly acts of terrorism,” Singh said in a brief televised statement. The attacks targeted the many people shopping just days before the festival of Diwali, a major Hindu holiday during which families exchange gifts, light candles and celebrate with fireworks. The markets where the blasts occurred often sell fireworks that are elaborate and potentially dangerous.
“When I got up, there were people everywhere – they were bleeding and screaming,” Anil Gupta said about 45 minutes after the blast as he sifted through the wreckage of his jewelry store.
Scattered around his feet were bracelets, necklaces and earrings.The blast in the Paharganj market badly damaged a row of shops. About an hour later, investigators stood around a small, debris- filled crater about 10 feet from the string of shops. All around, broken glass and other wreckage littered the street, shop signs were ripped and twisted, and clothes – mostly T-shirts and scarves – hung from low-strung power lines.
A witness to the second blast, Satinder Lal Sharma, said some boys warned him about an unclaimed bag near a tree and he “started shouting, ‘Run! Run!”‘ just before the explosion. It destroyed several shops and left the tree charred and without leaves.
Govind Singh, who sells wallets and toys on a cart next to a juice shop devastated in the explosion, said at least five people from his village were killed.
The explosion was “so loud that I fell down. Then a fire started,” he said. “I took out at least 20 bodies, most of them were children.” He and others wrapped the bodies in sheets that were being sold by one of the destroyed shops.
At Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Dr. S.K. Sharma, the emergency room chief, said his team had received four victims from the first blast who arrived dead and “charred beyond recognition.” They were treating another 30 injured from the same explosion, he said.
