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14 hurt in bomb blast on Gomti Exp

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Fourteen passengers were injured, three of them seriously, when a bomb explosion rocked the Delhi-Lucknow superfast Gomti Express at 2300 IST today.

The bomb exploded when the train was passing through tiny Jhijhak station, about 80 kilometres short of Kanpur and 160km from Lucknow.

The explosion took place in a second class reserved coach of the train and blew off the roof of the compartment. One half of the coach was badly damanged. Surprisingly, however, the train was not thrown off the rails.

The injured passengers were taken to hospitals in Kanpur. The train was also driven to Kanpur along with the damaged compartment.

Preliminary police investigations revealed that the bomb, which was not a very big or powerful device, was planted at Delhi itself, and was probably placed in a cloth bag near the toilet.

The express, which has only air-conditioned and ordinary chair-car accommodation, leaves Delhi at 1420 IST and is scheduled to reach Lucknow by about 2230 hours, halting at just four places en route -- Aligarh, Tundla, Etawah and Kanpur -- with only the Kanpur halt being a long one at 25 minutes. But today, it was running more than two hours late.

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