Blasts at Chennai Central railway station kill 1, cops detain suspect

Chennai: At least one passenger was killed and nine others were injured in two bomb blasts in two coaches of the Guwahati-Bangalore train, minutes after it entered the Chennai railway station here Thursday, an official said. The official said the 22-year-old woman passenger, a resident of Andhra Pradesh, was killed, while nine others were injured, two of them grievously, in the Chennai Central Railway Station blast. [caption id=“attachment_1504127” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A screengrab of the video after the blast at Chennai station. [/caption] The blasts took place in two coaches - S4 and S5 - of the train at around 7.15 am, barely 10 minutes after it had arrived at the railway station, the official added. The injured were taken to the government-run Rajiv Gandhi general hospital across the road. “One of the blasts took place under a seat and unfortunately she was sitting on that seat,” Rakesh Misra, General Manager of Southern Railway, said. Misra said an ex-gratia amount of Rs one lakh would be paid to the next of kin of the victim. He said the grievous injuries of the two persons were not life threatening. The Railway Minister has announced an ex-gratia of Rs one lakh to the family of dead woman, Rs 25,000 for grievously injured and Rs 5,000 for those with minor injureis. Mishra said the grievous injuries of the two persons were not life threatening. The senior railway official said that they hoped to restore operations at the railway station to normal at the earliest. The police had reportedly also detained a suspect in connection with the blast. The man, who was reportedly, hiding on board the train had explosives in his possession, CNN-IBN reported. The injured have been taken to a hospital. Police officials searched the train following the blast and a team of the National Investigations Agency is also heading to Chennai for further investigations. Soon after the explosion, security personnel cordoned off the platform number 9 but the movement of other trains from and to Chennai Central has not been affected. Police have mounted a massive search operation in all the trains following the incident. The Railway has started a help line 044-25357398 to render assistance to relatives of passengers. with inputs from agencies