‘Small pieces of paper were strewn around the body’

THE BLAST at Chandni Chowk’s Naya Bazar Tuesday morning triggered panic in the area, with those closest to the blast site running for their lives. Shopkeepers said the impact was such that glass panes of a nearby building shattered and fell to the ground.

Agraintrader,whowasstanding outside his shop when the incident took place, said more people could have been affected if the blast had occurred half-an-hour later. Another trader, Shyam Kumar Rajkumar, said, “Initially, we couldn’t figure out what happened. There was dust all around and we couldn’t see anything clearly.”

He said that when the dust settled, he spotted a man lying on his stomach and blood splattered around him. “Small pieces of paper were strewn around the body. A shell of a cracker lay close to the body,” he said.

Another witness, Vishal Kaushik, pointed to the CCTV footage of the incident, where the deceased can be seen walking with two bags on his head. “When we heard the blast, everyone panicked, thinking it was a cylinder blast. There was commotion all around, which added to the confusion. Once the dust settled, we found a man lying on the ground. A few others were injured after shards of glass pierced their bodies. They were taken to a hospital,” he said.

A tea seller, whose shop was close to the blast site, said, “I had gone to a nearby building to sell teawheniheardaloudnoise.iran to the top floor of the building. When I came back down, I saw half my shop scattered all around. I escaped narrowly.”

Abhinav Saha The impact was such that glass panes of a nearby building shattered and fell to the ground.