‘It was dark, and the next thing I knew was that I was in hospital’

The German Bakery at Koregaon Park has been to Pune what Café Leopold has been to Mumbai. Some young visitors to the famous hangout, however, now have scars on their consciousness which will remain forever.

The German Bakery at Koregaon Park has been to Pune what Café Leopold has been to Mumbai. Some young visitors to the famous hangout, however, now have scars on their consciousness which will remain forever.

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Al Badhani Sagr Sadh (28) a Yemeni national injured in Saturday evening’s blast and admitted to Surya Hospital, is one of them. Sadh, an IT professional, has been working in Pune for nearly two years now.

“After a workout, I had gone to the bakery to buy some stuff. I came out and had just called a friend on the phone, when I heard a loud explosion. I immediately felt a burning sensation in my eyes, and within seconds, I could see nothing,” Sadh said.

Twenty-three-year-old Upalakhsha Tiwari, a Mumbai resident currently studying at Symbiosis College, suffered injuries to his face and is at the same hospital. “I was sitting along with some friends on the steps at the entrance to the bakery and munching something. Just then, we heard an explosion, and in some time, someone picked me up and brought me to hospital,” he said.

Pravin Kumar, an employee at German Bakery, told the police that when the blast took place, the bakery was almost full, with 50 to 70 customers seated inside. “After the explosion, a chair landed on my headed, and most of the bakery’s furniture was ripped apart,” he said. Kumar had come to the bakery recently from his hometown Kathmandu in Nepal.

According to Kumar’s co-worker Paras Rimal, who also suffered serious injuries, their colleague Gokul Parihar was approaching towards the unattended bag when the explosion happened. “There was total darkness, and the next thing I knew was that I was in hospital. I even do not know about my other colleagues,” he said.

Relatives and kin of the injured and of those who

lost their lives rushed to various hospitals in the city after the blast.

The relatives of blast victims Ankit Dhar (24) and his sister Anandi (19), who came to Pune from Kolkata, were inconsolable when they arrived at Sassoon Hospital to claim the bodies