'Collected hands and legs of the dead separately': Ambulance drivers recount harrowing details after Delhi blast

A few hours after the car explosion near the Red Fort Metro Station, scenes at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital were grim. Ambulances lined the entry gate as drivers and hospital staff rushed in and out.

Zakir, a private ambulance driver, said he crossed the Red Fort gate to retrieve a leg from one side of the road. “The rest of the body was on the other side,” he said. “Body parts were lying everywhere. We picked up body parts and brought them separately.”

Another ambulance driver, Mohd Faizan, said seven ambulances were sent to the site along with the fire services. “I collected hands and legs of the dead separately,” he said. "It was a horrible scene."

Eyewitnesses from the area described what they saw. “I heard a loud sound, saw the flames and came down to see nothing but dead bodies everywhere,” said Dilsad, a resident of Uttar Pradesh. “I feel scared, I don't want to stay in Delhi, I will get a train and go back home tomorrow," he said wiping his tears.

According to Delhi Police Commissioner Satish Golcha, the blast took place at 6.52 pm in a Hyundai i20 car that had stopped at a red light outside Gate No. 1 of the Red Fort Metro Station.

The explosion set six cars and three auto-rickshaws on fire and shattered windowpanes nearby. The Delhi Fire Department received a call at 6.55 pm and sent seven tenders and 15 ambulances. The fire was brought under control by 7.29 pm.

Eight dead bodies arrived at LNJP Hospital’s casualty ward. Sixteen injured followed later.

“One had a lower limb auto-amputation, one was charred, most others had cuts and shrapnel wounds,” a postgraduate resident doctor in the emergency department of Lok Nayak hospital said.

“Injured have started coming, we have been put on high alert."

Dr Manish Jha, another resident doctor in the emergency department, said, “Doctors, nurses and support staff were called immediately. All were on standby.”

Outside the hospital, police had barricaded Gate No. 4. Media crews stood behind the barricades.

The wife of one of the injured, Mohd Shehnwaz, waited with her eight-year-old daughter. A nurse told her that he had a minor hand injury. Minutes later, Shehwaz came out and met them across the railing.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited the hospital later in the night.