Delhi Red Fort Blast: Car door flew 100 metres away after explosion, says official

At least eight people were killed and 20 others were injured after a high-intensity explosion ripped through a slow-moving car near Delhi's historic Red Fort on Monday evening.

The blast that took place on a busy evening when the area was milling with people. The injured were taken to the LNJP hospital, a few kilometres away.

The explosion shattered nearby windows, scattered debris across the road, and left several vehicles mangled. It was so powerful that the door of a car was flung nearly 100 metres from the blast site, officials said, according to report by NDTV.

Delhi Police Commissioner Satish Golcha told reporters, "Today at 6.52 pm a slow-moving vehicle stopped at the red light. An explosion happened in that vehicle and, due to the explosion, nearby vehicles were also damaged. Some people have died and some have been injured."

A high alert has been sounded in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Jaipur, Haryana, Punjab, Hyderabad, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. Bihar, which is set to vote in the second and final round of polling on Tuesday, is also on high alert.

Eyewitnesses described a "massive fireball" followed by thick black smoke rising over the Red Fort area.

"I saw a huge fireball from my terrace, and came running down to see what happened. The explosion was very loud. My house is near the gurdwara," a resident told NDTV.