NEW DELHI: Outside Lok Nayak Hospital, two young ambulance drivers, Mohammad Faizan and Mohammad Hasan, stood amid a growing crowd where chaos unfolded. Both had just returned from one of the most harrowing calls of their careers, rushing four to five mutilated bodies from the Red Fort area after the powerful explosion.

“We got a call from the beat official who asked us to reach Lal Qila. We were told that blast hua hai. We managed to reach the location in seven minutes,” Faizan said, carrying visible sweat drops on his forehead. “We reached there, and some people picked up the bodies and kept in the ambulance. One ambulance could carry not more than two bodies. I bought at least five bodies to the hospital,” he said.

Hasan described a scene of utter devastation, cars burnt and overturned, flames still rising, and the air heavy with smoke and the smell of burning metal. “Bodies were lying on the ground. We saw the parts of bodies thrown at different places. These bodies were in terrible shape,” Hasan added.