Seven explosions ripped through commuter trains and stations during evening rush hour in Mumbai on Tuesday, killing at least 163 people in an attack the prime minister blamed on terrorists. Train cars packed with commuters were blown apart, and television images showed ghastly footage of bloodied limbs and dead bodies in the wreckage after one of the worst such attacks in India in recent years.
Police said at least 163 were killed and 464 injured in the attacks in Mumbai, a sprawling city of almost 18 million people and the capital of the state of Maharashtra. "Obviously a terrorist outfit is behind the blasts because a normal human being could not have done this," said Mumbai police commissioner A.N. Roy.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for calm after an emergency meeting at his official residence.
"We will work to defeat the evil designs of terrorists and will not allow them to succeed," he said. "The government will take all possible measures to maintain law and order and defeat the forces of terrorism." Indian authorities sounded a high alert across the capital New Delhi, at trains and bus stands in Uttar Pradesh as well as in occupied Kashmir.
The apparently co-ordinated blasts occurred at packed railway stations or on trains in the Matunga, Khar, Mahim, Jogeshwari, Borivali and Bhayendar localities in and around Mumbai, he said. A seventh hit a subway.
The explosions took place within about 20 minutes of each other on Mumbai's packed trains that take several millions to and from work every day.
The blasts drew swift condemnation from nations around the world. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the string of explosions was a "hideous incident". "We condemn thoroughly this terrible terrorist incident," Rice told reporters in Washington. "We will stand with India in the war on terror. It just shows this kind of hideous incident can happen anywhere in the world against innocent people."
Britain branded the Mumbai attacks as "brutal and shameful". "There can never be any justification for terrorism," Prime Minister Tony Blair said in a statement. "We stand united with India, as the world's largest democracy, through our shared values and our shared determination to defeat terrorism in all its forms."
France also pledged its solidarity with India for the Mumbai blasts and a series of grenade attacks in occupied Kashmir. The 25-nation European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana condemned what he called "these despicable acts of terrorism, which have caused death and injuries to scores of innocent people".
Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay said in a statement that the Mumbai rail attacks were "another awful reminder of the determination of terrorists who use murder as an instrument to advance their political ends".