At least eight people were killed and 20 injured on Monday when a car exploded near the historic Red Fort in India’s capital, Delhi, police said, a rare blast in the heavily guarded city of more than 30 million people.
Major train stations across India, the financial capital Mumbai and the state of Uttar Pradesh, which borders Delhi, were all put on high alert, authorities said.
“All angles” were being investigated and security agencies would come to a conclusion soon, federal home minister Amit Shah said.
A previous owner of the car, named only as Salman, was arrested after the blast, NDTV reported, without going into more details. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
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Mangled bodies and the wreckage of several cars could be seen on a congested street near a metro station in the old quarter of Delhi, as police poured into the area to secure it and push back gathering crowds.
“A slow-moving vehicle stopped at a red light. An explosion happened in that vehicle, and due to the explosion, nearby vehicles were also damaged,” Delhi police commissioner Satish Golcha told reporters.
He said the blast occurred just before 7pm, local time.
At least six vehicles and three auto-rickshaws caught fire, Delhi’s deputy fire chief said.
Prime minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences to those who had lost loved ones.
“May the injured recover at the earliest. Those affected are being assisted by authorities,” he said in a post on X.
People near the scene described hearing a loud explosion.
“I was at the metro station, going down the stairs, when I heard an explosion. I turned around and saw a fire. People started running helter-skelter,” one woman, Suman Mishra, said.
Wali Ur Rehman said he was sitting at his shop. “I fell from the impact of the explosion, it was that intense,” he told news agency ANI.
About 30 to 40 ambulances were near the site of the blast and the entire area was cordoned off after the fire was put out, a Reuters reporter said.
The US embassy in Delhi issued a security alert to its citizens, asking them to avoid crowds and areas surrounding the Red Fort, and to stay alert in places frequented by tourists.
The Red Fort, known locally as Lal Qila, is a sprawling, 17th century Mughal-era edifice melding Persian and Indian architectural styles, and is visited by tourists throughout the year.
The prime minister addresses the nation from the fort’s ramparts every year on August 15th, India’s independence day.
Delhi was the target of blasts during the 1980s and 1990s, with public places such as bus stations and crowded market areas hit in attacks blamed on Islamist militants or on separatists from the northern Sikh state of Punjab.
About a dozen people were killed in a briefcase explosion outside the Delhi High Court in 2011 - the last such major incident in the city.
Security in the national capital is the responsibility of the federal home ministry. Delhi police report directly to it, though the capital territory also has its own local government. - Reuters
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