Bomb blast in Agra hospital

A low-intensity blast in which a crude Improvised Explosive Device was used ripped through a reception area of a private hospital in Agra on Saturday evening leaving six people injured.

It was not immediately clear whether the explosion at the 70-bedded Jai hospital, located three km from Taj Mahal, was a terror attack or some criminal gang was behind it. Security around the 17th century monument of love in this tourist town in Uttar Pradesh has been beefed up as it has been on the radar of terrorists for an attack.

The explosion which occurred at 5:45 PM broke the windowpanes in the reception area where 10 to 15 people were seated in steel chairs. Shards of glass lay strewn on the ground floor of the 12-year-old hospital located on the Agra-Kanpur highway.

Preliminary reports said the crude bomb may have been kept below a chair in the reception area.

Inspector General of Police(Agra Range) P K Tiwari said six people suffered minor injuries and that it was too early to say whether the incident was a terror strike. Tiwari ruled out the possibility of tiffin boxes being used in the explosion which set off panic among the patients and medical personnel at the hospital.

He said the injuries sustained were not of a serious nature and all were being treated in the hospital itself. Official sources in Delhi said that according to preliminary reports the explosion was triggered by a loosely assembled IED.

A team of national Security Guards were also rushed to the spot. Forensic teams have been rushed to the spot to collect clues from the blast site.

Patients were evacuated from the hospital and police cordoned off the entire area and conducted an intensive combing operation.