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`There was a deafening sound'

Staff Reporter

Bodies of four charred beyond recognition

BLACK SATURDAY: The shattered windscreen of the DTC bus where the bomb was detected by the conductor and the driver at Govindpuri in South Delhi on Saturday. Photo: V. Sudershan.

NEW DELHI: It should have been just another day of shopping for ten-year-old Jeevan. But barely three hours after he was caught in the Paharganj blast, fear was still writ large on the face of this young Gole Market resident.

Having gone with his elder brother Jai Prakash to do Diwali shopping at Nehru Bazar in Paharganj, Jeevan had just stepped down from a rickshaw when the blast went off. Standing outside the emergency ward of Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital shortly afterward, he was just one of the many who had a torrid tale to narrate on Saturday evening.

"We were just a stone's throw away from where the blast occurred. It was around 5-30 p.m. and we had just got down from a rickshaw at the roundabout in Nehru Bazar. Suddenly there was a deafening sound and there was a dirt cloud all around. We could not see anything, but started running in the opposite direction out of panic. There was a lot of chaos with children crying and people pushing each other to get ahead,'' recalled Jai Prakash who had come to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital for first aid.

Over 30 blast victims had been admitted to the hospital by 8 p.m. Four of them, including two women, were declared brought dead. Doctors said their bodies were charred beyond recognition. According to S.K.Sharma, in charge of Emergency at RML Hospital, most of those admitted had suffered burns, splinter wounds or injuries caused due to stampede.

Four of those admitted were said to be in a critical condition, including Rabindra Nath, an Assistant Commandant with the Orissa police who suffered around 80 per cent burns, 60-year-old Raghunath Sikka and 44-year-old Anil Gupta.

"All our nurses and para-medical teams have been put into service. The life support systems are in place, and the disaster ward has been opened to take care of the rush, '' said Dr. Sharma.

Apart from relatives of those admitted here, the hospital also witnessed a rush of those who had been unable to trace their near and dear ones. "My parents had gone for shopping to Paharganj. We have not heard from them yet and so we decided to come and check at the hospitalBut there is no news of them here,'' said a concerned Rachna Jain, a resident of Gole Market

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