Amit Shah visits Lok Nayak Hospital, meets Delhi blast victims

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday visited Lok Nayak Hospital in the national capital to meet those injured in the car blast near the Red Fort and later held a meeting with Delhi Police Commissioner Satish Golcha and other senior officials to review the situationShah said the explosion occurred around 7 pm in a Hyundai i20 car at the Subhash Marg traffic signal near the Red Fort injuring several pedestrians and damaging multiple vehiclesldquoThis evening around 7 pm a blast occurred in a Hyundai i20 car at the Subhash Marg traffic signal near the Red Fort in Delhi The blast injured some pedestrians and damaged some vehicles Preliminary reports indicate that some people have lost their lives Within 10 minutes of receiving the information of the blast teams from the Delhi Crime Branch and Delhi Special Branch arrived at the spotrdquo Shah told ANIThe Union Home Minister added that the National Security Guard NSG and National Investigation Agency NIA teams along with Forensic Science Laboratory FSL experts have begun a detailed probeldquoI have also spoken to the Delhi CP and the Special Branch incharge The Delhi CP and the Special Branch incharge are present at the spot We are exploring all possibilities and will conduct a thorough investigation taking all possibilities into account All options will be investigated immediately and we will present the results to the publicrdquo Shah saidDelhi Police Commissioner Satish Golcha said that a slowmoving vehicle had stopped at a red light near the Red Fort Metro Station when the explosion occurred damaging nearby vehiclesldquoToday at around 652 pm a slowmoving vehicle stopped at the red light An explosion happened in that vehicle and due to the explosion nearby vehicles were also damaged All agencies FSL NIA are here Some people have died and some have been injured in the incident The situation is being monitoredrdquo Golcha saidHe added that the Union Home Minister is being updated regularly about the developmentsldquoThe Home Minister has also called us and information is being shared with him from time to timerdquo said GolchaPrime Minister PM Narendra Modi also took stock of the situation and spoke to Amit Shah government sources said adding that the PM was briefed on the latest updatesAccording to a senior official from Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan LNJP Hospital 15 people were brought in after the blastldquoEight of them died before reaching the hospital Three are seriously injured One is in stable conditionrdquo the hospitalrsquos medical superintendent told ANIOfficials confirmed that seven fire tenders were rushed to the spot and the fire was brought under control by 729 pm said Deputy Chief Fire Officer AK MalikldquoWe responded immediately and seven units were sent to the spot At 729 pm the fire was brought under control All our teams are present at the spotrdquo he saidEyewitnesses described scenes of horror with body parts scattered on the road and several cars damaged in the impactldquoWhen we came near we saw body parts spread on the road No one could figure out what happenedrdquo said one eyewitnessldquoI fell three times due to the explosion It felt as if we were all going to dierdquo said another local shopkeeperThe Delhi Police NIA and FSL teams are jointly investigating the incident with officials stating that all possible angles mdash including terror links mdash are being examinedWith ANI inputs