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Delhi on alert: 8 killed as car explodes in front of Red Fort
A senior police officer said “No nails, no splinters, no shrapnel, no wires, no chemicals were found at the spot and no suspicious debris were found either”
Police and counter-terrorism agencies are investigating an explosion in a slow-moving white Hyundai i20 car that ripped through a clutch of vehicles on an arterial road near the historic Red Fort in Delhi during the evening rush hour, killing at least eight people and injuring 21 on Monday.
While there is no confirmation of the blast being a terror attack — “We are exploring all possibilities and will conduct a thorough investigation, taking all possibilities into account,” said Union home minister Amit Shah — one officer familiar with the matter said one possibility being probed is whether the explosion could have been caused by a device that was being transported going off accidentally.
This person, who asked not to be named, said it did not look like the explosion was caused by a CNG cylinder as originally theorised, adding that the high temperatures caused by the explosion suggested ammonia gel or a similar explosive.
To be sure, details of the vehicle whose registration papers were shared by investigators show that it was retrofitted with a CNG tank. A senior Delhi Police Special Cell officer told HT, “No nails, no splinters, no shrapnel, no wires, no chemicals were found at the spot and no suspicious debris were found either.”
Investigators said the i20, with the registration number HR26CE7674 and three occupants, was headed from Daryaganj market and went to the Sunehri Masjid parking lot around 4pm. “It was being driven on the Chhata Rail Chowk before taking a U-turn and moving towards Lower Subhash Marg. The CCTV footage shows that the car was approaching a signal and had slowed down when the explosion occurred,” said an officer aware of the matter.
Delhi police commissioner Satish Golcha said the blast took place at 6.52pm when the car stopped at a traffic signal, close to the Red Fort metro station in the heart of old Delhi. The ensuing blaze engulfed at least six cars, two e-rickshaws, one auto and a bus.
The special cell officer quoted above added that the nature of injuries were mostly burns.
Investigators detained two people who previously owned the car as they sought to establish the chain of ownership. And as a precautionary measure, the Capital was placed on high alert, as were the adjoining states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, and cities such as Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata. In Delhi, authorities also sounded high alert in the Delhi Metro, Red Fort, government buildings and the airport.
Shah added that teams from the Delhi Crime Branch and Delhi Special Branch arrived at the spot within 10 minutes of receiving information about the blast and that the National Security Guard, National Investigation Agency and Forensic Science Laboratory were investigating.
Gurugram Police and the Union home ministry said the i20, whose mangled wreckage was found at the spot and partial number plate recalled by eyewitnesses, was registered in Gurugram in Haryana to a man identified as Mohammed Salman.
“He sold the vehicle to a man named Devender, a resident of Okhla, around one-and-a-half years ago. We have handed over Salman to the Delhi Police. Devender has been arrested by Delhi Police, and both are being questioned to trace the subsequent sale and establish the complete chain of ownership,” said Sandeep Kumar, spokesperson for the Gurugram Police.
Devender told police that he sold car to a man named Tariq.
He said that the car was later sold to someone in Ambala but added that the authorities didn’t have further details.
At Lok Nayak Hospital, authorities said immediate identification was tough due to the extent of the trauma --mainly severe burns--on the bodies.
The only two victims identified were Ashok Kumar, a 34-year-old resident of Amroha in Uttar Pradesh, and Amar Kataria, a 35-year-old resident of Srinivaspuri in Delhi. Four of the dead were in their 30s, two in their 20s and two in their 50s. Partial body parts of a possible ninth victim was found, officials said.
“Condolences to those who have lost their loved ones in the blast in Delhi earlier this evening. May the injured recover at the earliest. Those affected are being assisted by authorities. Reviewed the situation with home minister Amit Shah ji and other officials,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X.
Shah spoke to Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief Tapan Deka and Golcha, and later visited Lok Nayak Hospital to meet the victims.
Among those injured included a small-time businessman, two friends who had come to pray at a nearby temple, a hawker who sold masks on a cart and an autorickshaw driver who drove himself to the hospital with a piece of metal lodged in his abdomen.
A Delhi police officer at Sushruta Hospital confirmed that the driver, Avdhesh Mandal, drove himself to the trauma centre. “I live with my younger brother and Avdhesh in a rented flat in Nehru Nagar. We are very close friends and like family. Avdhesh is from Bihar,” said his friend Sanjeet Kumar at the hospital. Mandal is the only victim being treated at Sushruta Hospital. The other 20 are in Lok Nayak Hospital.
Fourteen of the injured were from Delhi, three from Uttar Pradesh, one from Uttarakhand and one from Himachal Pradesh, said hospital officials. Two women were on the list, including the youngest person injured, 23-year-old Shaina Parveen from Shakur ki Dandi near Minto Road. The oldest people injured were Vinod and Mohammad Farukh, both 55 and residents of Delhi.
Among the hordes of people waiting for news of their loved ones at the hospital was Mohammad Sarfaraz, whose brother Azad was driving an e-rickshaw with four passengers in it when the explosion struck.
“I sell masks on a cart in the area. I heard a loud sound, I was scared... There were flames going up. I left my cart and ran. Around 10 minutes later, my brother called and said that he was injured. I rushed and saw him bleeding near his rickshaw. Pieces of glass and metal were stuck to his thigh, face and abdomen,” he said.
Delhi’s deputy fire chief AK malik said the first call to the Delhi Fire Department came at 6.55pm and the fire was doused at 7.29pm. The first victims were rushed to the Lok Nayak Hospital at 7pm.
Visuals showed debris scattered across the road at an intersection with cars, motorbikes, autos and e-rickshaws mangled and burnt, and twisted metal strewn around. Amid blackened wreckage and the wail of emergency sirens, HT found maimed and charred remains of body parts on the road as eyewitnesses described the crowd and panic when the high-intensity blast went off – which was heard as far as 2km away.
“The light turned green and we started moving slowly. A car behind us had this blast and we started running. I could see pieces of body parts and one body,” said Bhupinder Singh, a resident of Noida who was at the intersection.
(With inputs from Leena Dhankhar, Aheli Das and Gargi Shukla)
