150 killed, 300 injured in serial blasts in local trains in Mumbai

Mumbai, July 11 (UNI) In a ghastly reminder of the bloody 1993 post-Ayodhya explosions in the megapolis, around 150 people were killed and more than 300 injured, many of them seriously, as a series of powerful blasts on local trains at seven places within the space of half of an hour rocked the country's commercial capital this evening.

The blasts ripped through suburban trains during peak hours, with the first occurring at 1820 hrs at Matunga, followed by seven more explosions within the next 15 to 20 minutes at Mahim, Bandra, Khar, Jogeshwari, Borivali (twice) and Mira Road.

The trains were either on the platforms of the railway stations or between the stations when the explosions occurred.

In what certainly was a well-planned terrorist operation, the blasts occurred when the trains were packed to capacity with office-goers returning home.

Police said the blasts were so powerful that the roof of the Mahim Railway Station was blown to pieces.

Mangled remains of the dead were strewn all over the areas where the blasts occurred, while blood stains were visible on the tracks.

The injured were rushed to various hospitals in the metropolis.

A high alert was sounded across the country soon after the blasts as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Singh convened a high-level meeting with Home Minister Shivraj Patil and top officials to review the situation arising from the explosions in Mumbai as well as the terrorist violence in Srinagar earlier in the day.

More than a million people travel daily on the suburban trains, considered the lifeline of Mumbai.

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