India Restaurant Bomb Blast Kills Eight in Pune

Eight people were killed and thirty-three wounded when a bomb exploded at a restaurant in Pune, located along the western coast of India.

Officials from the Maharashtra state said that the explosion took place at a restaurant called ‘The German Bakery’ in Koregaon Park. The restaurant is very popular amongst tourists and is quite close to the famed Osho Ashram.
News reports indicate that among the dead are four foreign women – their nationality is yet unknown.

The explosion took place around 1900 hrs in India, one of the busier times of the restaurant, which is located down North Main Road.

Vinod Dhale, one of the workers at the restaurant speaking to the Reuters news agency said, “We heard a big noise and we all rushed out. The impact was so much that there were tiny body parts everywhere.”

Meanwhile, Rajendra Sonawane, a senior police official told BBC that the bomb had been in an abandoned bag which apparently contained an improvised explosive device (IED). Anti-terror squad officers are currently at the scene.

Initial news reports of the explosion stated that it was caused by an exploding gas cylinder.
However, although officials are yet to confirm if the explosion was caused by a bomb, Home Secretary G.K. Pillai told the Press Trust of India (PTI) that this incident was ‘most probably a terror attack’.

State Deputy Chief Minister, Chhagan Bhujbal said Mumbai and the Maharashtra state has been put on high alert.

Shops located close to the restaurant were also badly damaged in the blast, while the site of the explosion was said to be splattered with blood and severed limbs.

The last major terror attack in India took place in Mumbai in November 2008, which recorded 166 fatalities.