Another bomb explosion in Delhi; two dead

NEW DELHI: Terror returned to haunt Delhi today, a fortnight after the serial blasts, with two motorcycle-borne youth dropping a tiffin bomb in a crowded south Delhi market that exploded killing two persons, including a teenaged boy, and injuring 17 people.

Riding a black motorcycle, the two men in black dress and wearing helmets, dropped a black polythene bag containing a tiffin box opposite an electronic goods shop in the flower market in Mehrauli at about 2.15 pm, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) H S Dhaliwal told reporters.

A 13-year-old boy Santosh Kumar picked it up to give it back to the bikers. They refused and fled the place but the boy was still keen on giving it to them when it exploded killing him instantaneously and injuring 18 others.

One of the injured--a 60-year-old unidentified man whose cervical was badly fractured--succumbed at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences late in the evening, AIIMS sources said.

Eleven of the injured were rushed to AIIMS where doctors said six were in critical condition. Five of them suffered serious head injuries. Three or four of the injured could be required to be operated upon, Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta told reporters.

The explosive shattered the window panes of several adjacent shops in the market located close to the historic Qutab Minar, which was bustling with shoppers.

The blast, which caused a crater, left a gory scene with blood, shattered glasspanes and furnitures littered the road.

The explosion came exactly two weeks after the national capital was rocked by five near-simultaneous blasts in which 24 people were killed and more than 100 injured.