________________________________________________________________________
Ten killed as bombs rip through Indian trains
____________________________________________________________________________
Copyright ) 1997 Nando.net
Copyright ) 1997 Agence France-Presse
MADRAS, India (December 6, 1997 01:29 a.m. EST http://www.nando.net) -
At least 10 people were killed and 75 injured when three powerful bombs
exploded early Saturday on three trains in southern India, the police
said.
Six of the victims died in two near-simultaneous explosions in the
coastal state of Tamil Nadu, while four more people died in a third
blast in the neighboring state of Kerala, authorities said.
Four passengers died instantly when the first bomb went off at 5 a.m. in
the Pandian Express when it halted at a railway station at Trichy, about
210 miles south-west of here.
The blast ripped through seats in a crowded train car, the Press Trust
of India (PTI) said. The dead included two women and a child while more
than 20 others were injured.
The Pandian Express was on its way from Madras, the Tamil Nadu capital,
to the temple town of Madurai.
Another powerful bomb went off 10 minutes later in the Cheran Express
when it stopped at Thottipalayam station near Erode, some 62 miles from
Trichy, killing two people and injuring five.
The train was proceeding from Madras to the industrial town of
Coimbatore, around 281 miles away from Madras and close to the
neighbouring state of Kerala.
Two hours later, four people were killed and almost 50 injured when
another bomb devastated a train at a railway station in Kerala's
Thrissur city, about 62 miles from Coimbatore.
The United News of India (UNI) said the bomb may have been concealed
inside a toilet and that the dead and injured were asleep. Two women and
two men, died, three of them instantly. A fourth man, aged 60 years,
succumbed to his injuries in hospital.
The explosion sparked a panic run in the station, witnesses said. The
bombed train car was "extensively damaged," while the rest of the train
also suffered "severe damage," UNI said.
The police immediately brought in sniffer dogs to the site.
No one claimed responsibility for the bomb attacks, but they occurred on
the fifth anniversary of a mosque razing in northern India which had
sparked bloody nationwide Hindu-Muslim violence killing some 2,000
people.
Tamil Nadu and Kerala are located in the extreme south of India.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Apr 13 2001 - 12:55:26 PDT