75 killed and 145 injured in Hyderabad twin blasts

By M H Ahsan & Sailesh Reddy

HYDERABAD: At least 75 people, including five women and seven students, have been killed and 145 injured in two explosions at a crowded park and a popular eatery in Hyderabad last evening, three months after the Mecca Masjid blasts, police said. The week-end outing at the popular Gokul Chat shop at Kothi locality turned into a tragedy when a deafening explosion ripped through it killing 32 people and wounding 21, they said.

Five minutes earlier, 10 people, most of them from outside the state, were killed and 29 injured in another blast in an open air auditorium in Lumbini Park near the state secretariat in the heart of the city when a laser show was underway, they said. The blast at the auditorium, where 500 people were present, was so powerful that some bodies were flung in the air. Among the dead at the Lumbini Park were two students from Ahmedabad. Four Railways employee are among those killed in the blasts. The condition of some of the injured was stated to be serious, police said. Hyderabad Collector Chandravadan said round-the-clock medical care is being provided to the victims by experts. "Critical care support is being provided to them at several hospitals including corporate hospitals. Every effort is being made to help the victims."