BOMBAY, India (AP) - Seven explosions hit Bombay's commuter rail network Tuesday evening during rush hour, ripping apart train compartments, officials said. Indian television reported dozens may have been killed. Chaos engulfed the crowded rail network in India's financial capital following the blasts, and authorities struggled to determine the number of casualties.
Indian television reported the death toll could be in the dozens. News channels broadcast video of the wounded sprawled on train tracks and being carried through stations to ambulances, past twisted and torn train compartments.
Witnesses reported seeing bodies parts strewn about stations.
Pranay Prabhakar, the spokesman for the Western Railway, confirmed that seven blasts had taken place.
He said all trains had been suspended and appealed to the public to stay away from train stations in the city.
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 Bombay hospital.
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.
