Bombs kill 147 on Indian trains

Eight bombs tore through packed commuter trains in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) today, killing at least 147 and wounding hundreds more in what authorities called a co-ordinated terrorist strike at the heart of a city embodying India’s global ambitions.

The country’s major cities were put on high alert after the blasts, which appeared timed to cause maximum carnage in the bustling financial centre of 16 million.

Mumbai’s crowded rail network – which carries more than six million people a day – was thrown into chaos and authorities struggled to gauge the impact.

Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh said “terrorists” were behind the bombings, which he called “shocking and cowardly attempts to spread a feeling of fear and terror among our citizens”.

While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, suspicion quickly fell on Kashmiri militants who have in the past used near-simultaneous explosions to attack Indian cities, including last year’s bombings of three markets in the capital, New Delhi, that killed 59 people.

Pakistan, India’s rival over the disputed territory of Kashmir, quickly condemned the bombings, but analysts said a Kashmiri link to the bombings could damage the peace process between the nuclear-armed rivals.

Maharashtra state chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said 147 people had died in the blasts that ripped through trains and platforms at the height of the rush hour, with another 439 wounded.

Deshmukh, the state’s top elected official, also corrected initial reports of seven blasts, saying there had been eight explosions, including two at one station. All were caused by bombs, he said.

Authorities struggled to treat survivors and recover the dead from the twisted wreckage amid heavy monsoon downpours, with the effort continuing well into the night. Blood-spattered luggage and debris was strewn across the tracks.

Survivors staggered from the trains, many clutching bandages to their heads and faces.

There was no immediate indication if suicide bombers were involved. Police inspector Ramesh Sawant said most of the victims suffered head and chest injuries, leading authorities to believe the bombs were placed in overhead luggage racks.

Hospitals were overwhelmed, and Mumbai residents were urged to donate blood.

“I can’t hear anything,” said Shailesh Mhate, a man in his 20s, sitting on the floor of Veena Desai Hospital surrounded by bloody cotton swabs.

“People around me didn’t survive. I don’t know how I did.”

The first explosion hit a train at a railway station in the suburb of Bandra at about 6.20pm, and was followed down the line of the Western Railway at Khar, Jogeshwari, Mahim, Mira Road, Matunga and finally Borivili, which was struck by two blasts at 6.35pm, according to the Star News channel.

Some passengers are said to have jumped from speeding trains in panic.

Police reportedly carried out raids across the country following the blasts. One TV station said a suspect was in custody.

A senior Mumbai police official, P.S. Pasricha, said the explosions were part of a well-co-ordinated attack. They came hours after a series of grenade attacks by Islamic extremists killed eight people in the main city of India’s part of Kashmir.

Indian home minister Shivraj Patil told reporters that authorities had some information that an attack was coming, ”but place and time was not known”.

The bombings occurred after the stock markets closed. The commercial capital suffered similar serial blasts in 1993 that included the Stock Exchange, killing more than 250 people.

India’s CNN-IBN television news, which had a reporter aboard one train, said a blast struck a first-class compartment as the train was moving, ripping through the compartment and killing more than a dozen people.

The Press Trust of India, quoting railway officials, said all the blasts had hit first-class carriages – a sign the attackers were targeting the professional class in the city that has come to embody India’s 21st-century ambitions.

Mumbai is India’s commercial and entertainment capital, a city that presents itself to the world as a cosmopolitan metropolis where bankers dine with movie stars and fashion models party until dawn. But it is also crowded and largely poor, and both prosperous and downtrodden worked together to aid survivors.

“I am confident that the people of this great city have the will and the courage to face this situation,” prime minister Singh said.

Railway service was suspended soon after the blasts, but trains resumed around midnight.

Late today Pakistan strongly condemned the attacks as a “despicable act of terrorism”.

Pakistan’s president, General Pervez Musharraf, offered condolences over the loss of life, the foreign ministry said, adding: “Terrorism is a bane of our times and it must be condemned, rejected and countered effectively and comprehensively.”

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since the subcontinent was partitioned on independence from Britain in 1947 – two over Kashmir.

Dozens of militant groups have been fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, demanding the mostly-Muslim region’s independence, or merger with Pakistan.

New Delhi has accused Pakistan of training, arming and funding the militants. Islamabad insists it only offers the rebels diplomatic and moral support.