New Delhi:
There has been an explosion in an Israeli diplomat's car very near Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's 7 Race Course Road residence this afternoon. Explosives have been found at the site of the blast and four people, including the diplomat, have been injured. Here are the top 10 facts about the incident:
- Four people were injured after an Israeli diplomat's Toyota Innova car caught fire after a loud explosion very near the Prime Minister's 7 Race Course Road residence in Delhi at 3.20 pm today.
- The injured include an Israeli woman, Tal Yeshova, who works at the Israeli Embassy and is also the wife of a diplomat, the driver of the car, an Indian, and two other people who were in an Indica car nearby. The Israeli woman is in hospital and her injuries have been described by doctors at the Primus Hospital as serious. A doctor attending on her said she was currently undergoing spinal surgery. He said Ms Yeshova had suffered multiple injuries and one of her legs was not moving. The other three people have minor injuries, police said.
- Police said that Ms Yeshova was on her way to pick up her children from the American School nearby.
- Explosives have been found in the car, which is badly burnt. Delhi Police quoted eyewitnesses as saying that a motorcyclist was seen sticking what seemed like a magnetic object to the back of the car minutes before the explosion. The incident happened at the Safdarjung Road-Aurangzeb Road crossing close to the Israeli Embassy.
- Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed Iran, he says the militant group Hezbollah is behind the attack. Israel says its diplomats have been targeted globally; it confirms an averted attack bid in Georgia today and similar incidents in Bangkok and Baku in Azerbaijan in the recent past. Mr Netanyahu said in a statement, "In the past few months we have witnessed several attempts to attack Israeli citizens and Jews in a number of places - Azerbaijan, Thailand and others...and each of those cases we managed to thwart the attacks with the cooperation of local officials. In all of those cases, those who stood behind the attacks were Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah."
- Israel has confirmed that a bomb was found today in a car belonging to a staff member at the embassy in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, It was defused.
- India's foreign minister SM Krishna has talked to his Israeli counterpart. He said: "I have just spoken to the Israeli foreign minister and I have reassured him that the law of the land will take its course and the investigation has already started. We will continue with it, and keep him posted."
- The Delhi Police is treating today's incident as a terror attack. The Special Cell of the Delhi Police has been handed the investigation.
- Forensic experts are studying the explosives that were found near the Toyota Innova, which was destroyed in the incident. Sources say sophisticated material was used. Delhi Police sources say there is no CCTV footage that they are aware of. They're not sure if the Israeli embassy's security cameras caught the explosion.
- Israeli Embassy offices in Mumbai, and across the world, have also been put on high alert. In Delhi, all embassies are on alert.