M A I N   N E W S

Heart-rending scenes in hospitals

Victims of the bomb blasts are treated in a city hospital. — Reuters photo

Mumbai, August 25
It was a terrifying experience for some schoolchildren when the body of a person killed in today’s blast here, fell out of a van, right in front of their bus.

The deceased were being taken to the J. J. Hospital for post-mortem when the driver applied the brakes and the body fell out from the police van, chock-a-block with the remains of the dead.

The children who were sitting in a school bus, immediately behind the van, started shrieking and crying as soon as they saw the blood-stained body.

At St George Hospital, where some of the injured were being rushed for treatment, it was a pitiful scene, reminiscent of the days of the serial blasts a decade ago. Scores of injured could be seen writhing in pain even as doctors and medial staff ran around, trying to organise medical relief for them.

Many people had lost their limbs or eye while some others lay comatose.

The scene at both these government-run hospitals were heart- rending, with relatives of those dead wailing and grieving.

Some bodies were mutilated beyond recognition. The bodies were lying in the corridors of the emergency casualty wards of the hospitals and white curtains were drawn around them.

The bomb near the Gateway of India which was reportedly kept in the boot of a taxi was so powerful that some of the window panes of the Taj Hotel and other buildings situated nearby were shattered.

Fire brigade and police personnel were also searching the sea nearby for bodies.

At J. J. Hospital, Anil, a resident of Colaba in South Mumbai, who was injured in the head said he was still to comprehend what had actually happened.

“There was a loud noise and then everything lay scattered,’’ he said while waiting for treatment at St George Hospital.

Another person who sustained injuries on his abdomen, was brought into the hospital, with a towel around his wound.

One of the hospital staff, who was handling the bodies, said that some of them were badly mutilated.

Satish, who escaped injuries, said there was a lot of smoke near the Gateway, following the explosion.

State Health Minister Digvijay Khanvilkar and City Mayor Mahadeo Deole, who visited St George Hospital, appealed to the citizens of the city to donate blood.

At both hospitals, heavy police force was deployed and the whole area cordoned off. — UNI