It's a painful scene at Hyderabad hospitals

Heart-rending scenes were witnessed at Osmania General Hospital and three private hospitals in Hyderabad on Sunday morning as relatives of victims frantically searched for their near and dear ones among the dead, a day after twin terror blasts claimed 42 lives and injured around 70.

Cries of relatives could be heard across the sprawling premises of the state's largest government-run hospital, where 32 bodies were brought.

The mortuary presented a horrific picture with the bodies of victims lying on the floor. While the head of one victim was severed, many had lost their limbs and were disfigured.

The first blast on Saturday ripped through an open air auditorium at Lumbini Park on the banks of picturesque Hussain Sagar Lake in the heart of the city at 7.45 pm, while three minutes later and five kilometers away another blast rocked Gokul Chat, a fast food joint at Koti, a busy commercial hub.

While some kin of the victims were crying inconsolably at the hospital, others were too shocked to react. Refusing to believe that her son was no more, mother of T Vinay Babu, a worker at a book stall near Gokul Chat, held his body in her hands, pleading him to wake up and return home.

Vinay was having chat at the famous food joint when the blast occurred, claiming 32 lives. Ten people died at Lumbini Park.

The relatives were running around, not knowing where to look for their loved ones. Not finding them among the injured, they were seen running towards the mortuary, already teeming with distraught people.

As the dead and injured were shifted to three other hospitals, the kin of the victims were running from one hospital to the other, praying that they were not among the list of dead.

Utter chaos prevailed as hospital staff struggled to cope up with the large number of injured as well. The visit of VIPs only added to the problems of the medical staff.

First Published: Aug 26, 2007 09:40 IST