JOIN USBlood on a steel tiffin box and the food at the Anand Tiffin Centre at Dilsukhnagar was a chilling reminder of the 2007 blasts, particularly at the Gokul Chaat Bhandar at the Kothi area, which claimed 42 lives.
Jitendra, a student who was injured and was shifted to Osmania General Hospital, initially thought that the deafening sound had come from a nearby transformer.
“I was thrown into the air and then fell down from the stairs. For a minute I lost my hearing, terrified people ran helter-skelter and a few ran over me,” he said, recalling his experience.
Another injured person Yadaiah was apparently hit by a flying object, a shrapnel perhaps, and was profusely bleeding in the face.
Heavy crowd
“I just stopped at the Anand Tiffin Centre to have snacks. As it was around seven, there was also a heavy crowd from the nearby Saibaba Temple. After the blast there were bodies all around. I saw the person who was standing there a minute ago lying dead in a heap,” Yadaiah said.
“After the blast near the theatre there was absolute darkness as the power went off. That added to the panic, forcing people to run in confusion,” Ravi, who was admitted in a superspeciality hospital, said. He was supposed to attend a class at a nearby IT training centre.
Trail of destruction
The blast which was heard by people a few miles away from Dilsukhnagar has left a trail of destruction. The twin blasts have broken window panes, glass facades of shops, strewn food and belongings of the dead and the injured who tried to escape from the spot to a safer place.
As the blasts occurred on the Mumbai Highway, vehicular traffic came to a halt after the explosions.
The police, who have started search operations in nearby installations as a security measure, have diverted the traffic via Outer Ring Road.