Indian authorities are investigating “all options” after at least eight people were killed Monday evening when a rare car exploded through a popular tourist area of the capital.
At least another 20 were injured in an explosion near Delhi's historic Red Fort that occurred at 6:52 pm local time (8:22 am IST), leaving the surrounding area littered with charred vehicles.
The “slow-moving vehicle” stopped at a red light at an intersection and exploded, Delhi Police Commissioner Satish Golcha told reporters on Monday, causing a large fire that spread to nearby cars and rickshaws.
Officials did not say what caused the explosion or name any suspects.
Delhi Police has registered a case under anti-terrorism laws and is building a “sequence of events”, Deputy Commissioner Raja Banthia told reporters on Tuesday morning.
“It’s too early to comment,” he added.
Footage reviewed by NBC News shows burned-out vehicles at the scene of the explosion, where investigators are searching for forensic evidence that could help determine the cause.
Witnesses said they saw body parts scattered throughout the area.
“It was like an earthquake, the impact and intensity was very powerful,” said Wadkas Sheikh, a 34-year-old pharmacy owner who lives in nearby Chandni Chowk.
“We were shocked,” he said.
Home Minister Amit Shah said late Monday it was too early to say whether the blast was a terrorist attack and told reporters investigators were looking into all leads.
“We will vigorously investigate all aspects,” he said.
Shah was expected to hold a meeting with senior intelligence officials on Tuesday morning.
Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday that the results of the investigation “will be made public soon.”
“Those responsible for this tragedy will be brought to justice and will not be spared under any circumstances,” he said.
Monday's blast occurred near the 17th-century Red Fort, once the residence of the Mughal emperors and now a major tourist destination where Prime Minister Narendra Modi Every August 15th he delivers an address on the occasion of Indian Independence Day.
Modi, who arrived in neighboring Bhutan on Tuesday for a scheduled visit, said in a speech: “The conspirators behind the attack will not be spared.”
Security has been beefed up at key locations around Delhi, which has a population of nearly 33 million, including the country's busiest airport, several monuments and railway stations, India's federal police unit CISF said in a release. publish on X.
The Red Fort metro station was closed on Tuesday “due to security reasons”, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation said. said in X. The fort itself is also closed until Thursday, according to the archaeological agency.
The neighboring states of Uttar Pradesh – the country's most populous and home to the Taj Mahal – and Haryana were also put on high alert, police said.
India's financial hub, Mumbai, in the south of the country, is also on high alert, police said.
The State Department expressed its condolences and advised US citizens should stay away from crowded places, especially around the Red Fort. The explosion occurred a few hours before the President Donald Trump swore allegiance to Sergio Gore as US Ambassador to India.
Modi, whose Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party rules Delhi and faces key elections this week in the northern state of Bihar, shared his condolences on Monday in publish on X and said he had “discussed the situation” with Shah.
The explosion frayed the nerves of India, which nearly went to war with its neighbor and fellow nuclear power Pakistan in April. Terrorist attack in the disputed region of Kashmir As a result, 26 people, mostly Indian tourists, were killed.
India, which said armed militants backed by Pakistan were responsible, launched airstrikes against Pakistan, which denied any involvement in the attack. Dozens of people were killed on both sides of the border in the days that followed before a ceasefire was agreed.
Pakistan reported deadly suicide bombing In his capital Islamabad on Tuesday, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi told reporters that at least 12 people had been killed and more than two dozen wounded.
Delhi explosion came hours after police in Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority region, said they arrested several people associated with known terrorist groups and seized more than 6,300 pounds of explosive materials in a joint operation involving police in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. It is unclear whether the arrests were related.
While explosions like Monday's are rare, they have brought back memories of previous attacks on Delhi.
The briefcase bomb killed about 12 people when it exploded outside the High Court in 2011, a decade after gunmen stormed parliament and killed more than a dozen people.
