New Delhi: “People were lying on the road, some bleeding, some not moving at all. There was blood everywhere. We saw death from up close,” said Ram Pratap, lying on a hospital bed with his right arm tightly bandaged, recalling the deafening blast that tore through an ordinary evening near Delhi’s Red Fort.
The roadside eatery owner from Bihar was among those who survived the explosion that killed 12 people and left the area surrounded in smoke and screams.
Pratap, who runs a small roadside eatery near the Red Fort, was preparing to shut for the day when the explosion ripped through the area. Speaking from his hospital bed, he described how the calm turned into a nightmare.
It was just another evening. A few customers were waiting when suddenly there was a loud blast. The noise was so strong I could not hear anything for a few seconds. Glass shards fell on us and thick smoke engulfed everything, Pratap said.
People were lying on the ground, some bleeding, some not moving at all. Blood was everywhere. My own hand was bleeding badly, but I did not even realise it then. We saw death from up close, he said, trying to hold back his tears.
Outside the emergency ward, one of Pratap’s relatives recalled how he was standing just a few metres away when the explosion occurred. There was a flash, then fire, then thick black smoke. I froze. I could not find my brother,” he said.
“People were shouting names, crying, searching for their families. For a few minutes, no one knew who was alive, he said.
That evening, a few metres away from Pratap’s eatery, Vijender Yadav had just parked his water tanker when the explosion occurred and everything went dark.
Yadav, who hails from Saharsa district in Bihar, runs a small water supply and tanker business in Delhi. His arm now rests in a sling, and his head is wrapped in bandages.
Standing outside the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital, his voice trembles as he recounts the horrifying scenes from that evening. My tanker was parked on the roadside. I was just closing up when it exploded, he said.
The blast threw me to the ground. When I got up, my clothes were soaked in blood. I saw bodies on the road, pieces of glass and flesh scattered everywhere,” Yadav added.
People were screaming, some were running, and others were frozen in shock, he said, adding, “That sound is still ringing in my ears.
Yadav, who has been in the business for more than two decades, said his wife and four children live in their village in Bihar.
I thought I would never see them again, he said, pausing. I have three daughters. I kept thinking what would happen to them if I didn’t make it. I still don’t know how I survived. This chaos, this fear, it will stay with me forever.
The high-intensity blast, which ripped through a slow-moving car near the Red Fort Metro station Monday evening, gutted several vehicles and left many injured. Several of the critically wounded later succumbed, taking the death toll to 12.