About 50 people in the Bengaluru eatery during blast, say eyewitnesses

Bengaluru: The neighbourhood in the vicinity of Rameshwaram Cafe in Whitefield in eastern Bengaluru, plunged into a flurry of activity after a low-intensity blast around 12.55 pm on Friday.

The eatery was crowded for lunch and eyewitnesses told DH that there were not less than about 50 people in the eatery at the time of the blast. 

Krishna N, who stays in a paying guest accommodation just 150 meters away from the Cafe, said he felt a tremor of sorts as soon as the blast went off at the cafe.  Narayanaswamy, a petty shop owner, just 50 meters away from the cafe said he saw a thick blanket of smoke. “I ran out of my shop and thought it was a cylinder blast. But only after the police came in and the area was cordoned off did I realise that it was a bomb blast.” 

Passersby and owners of other commercial establishments in the neighbourhood, rushed in to help the injured and hailed ambulances to shift them to the hospital. 

Mahendra V, who runs a fruit shop close to the cafe, said no establishments were closed after the blast. Despite the loud noise from the explosion the business around the area remained undisrupted. All the people around the place either thought it was a transformer explosion or some cylinder explosion. A few residents of an apartment close by, who spoke to DH, said there was commotion in the complex
for sometime but the mood soon settled. 

A staff whose ears were bleeding was taken to hospital by walk. “Other people closed his ears and took him,” said an onlooker.

The vendors in the vicinity said they were shocked and numbed by the sound. Sixty-four-year old Gangamma, a flower seller, opposite Rameshwaram cafe, said she saw people running out of cafe as soon as blast happened.

“It was a very loud noise and it felt like her house was going to fall down. People scrambled out of the cafe onto the streets,” she said.

People living in the neighbourhood said that they could feel a certain tremor. Kamal Nath, an IT employee, told DH that a couple of windows in the building adjacent to the cafe, where he lives, had shatterred.