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7 explosions hit India trains; 15 reportedly dead
Blasts struck when commuter ‘trains were most crowded,’ official says


Seven explosions hit Mumbai’s commuter rail network during rush hour Tuesday evening.

BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 9 minutes ago
MUMBAI, India - Seven explosions hit Mumbai’s commuter rail network during rush hour Tuesday evening, ripping apart train compartments and reportedly injuring dozens of people, officials and Indian media said.
The local CNN-IBN news channel said at least 15 people were killed in one of the blasts at Matunga station in central Mumbai. Other Indian television reports indicated the death toll could be in the dozens.
“The blasts happened when the trains were most crowded,” D.K Shankaran, chief secretary of the state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital said. “Ten to 15 people have been injured.”
There was chaos throughout the crowded rail network following the explosions, and authorities struggled to determine how many people had been killed and injured.
Television images showed injured victims sprawled on train tracks, frantically dialing their cell phones. Some of the injured were being carried away from the crash site.
The force of the blasts ripped doors and windows off carriages, and luggage and debris were strewn about.
Pranay Prabhakar, the spokesman for the Western Railway, confirmed that seven blasts had taken place. He said all trains had been suspended, and he appealed to the public to stay away from the city's train stations.
Tactic of Kashmiri militants
The blasts appeared to have come in quick succession — a common tactic employed by Kashmiri militants that have repeatedly targeted India’s cities.
The first explosion hit the train at a railway station in the northwestern suburb of Khar, said a police officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
India’s CNN-IBN television news, which had a reporter traveling on the train, said the blast took place in a first-class car as the train was moving, ripping through the compartment and killing more than a dozen people.
Another CNN-IBN reporter said he had seen more than 20 bodies at one hospital in Mumbai, which was previously known as Bombay.
All of India’s major cities were reportedly on high alert following the attacks, which came hours after a series of grenade attacks by Islamic extremists killed eight people in the main city of India’s part of Kashmir.
Mumbai's commuter rail network is among the most crowded in the world.
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