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A car explosion killed at least eight people near the historic Red Fort in a crowded area of India’s capital New Delhi on Monday, a senior local police officer said.
It was not immediately clear what caused the blast, which occurred near the 17th-century Mughal-era fort in Delhi’s old city, a site visited by tourists throughout the year and used by the prime minister for his annual independence day address.
The officer, who declined to be named, said eight people were killed, three of them inside the moving car that exploded and five in other vehicles. He said about 20 people had been taken to nearby hospitals.
New Delhi police commissioner Satish Golcha told reporters an investigation was ongoing into the explosion, which occurred shortly before 7pm on Monday evening. He added that “information is being shared” with India’s home minister, Amit Shah.
The office of Narendra Modi said that the prime minister “has taken stock of the situation in the wake of the blast in Delhi”. Shah said in a brief televised address that “we are exploring all possibilities and will conduct a thorough investigation, taking all possibilities into account. All options will be investigated immediately.”
“When we arrived on the scene we saw four to five shattered bodies and body parts. Many vehicles around the one that had exploded had caught fire. We collected the bodies and brought them to the hospital,” Delhi police ambulance driver Mohammad Asad told the PTI news agency.
Videos on social media showed smoke billowing from burning cars and rickshaws. Officials said the flames had been doused by firefighting teams.
The blast was powerful enough to shatter the windows of vehicles parked several metres away, witnesses said.
