‘The blast shook the temple so hard... and it felt like a strong earthquake hit us’

Witnesses tell of panic and choas as car explosion kills at least eight and injures dozens near Delhi's Red Fort

- ARPAN RAI

A day after a powerful blast in Delhi killed at least eight people, witnesses described the moment they felt something like an earthquake had hit India's capital city as windows shattered and people started to flee the streets in panic.

Dozens were wounded when a slow-moving car exploded at a traffic signal near Delhi's Red Fort - a huge historic Mughal monument - on Monday evening. The blast is being probed as a suspected terror attack under India's stringent anti-terrorism law, and the prime minister, Narendra Modi, has vowed to bring all those responsible to justice.

At the 17th-century temple, the Digambar Jain Lal Mandir, barely 100 yards away from the blast site, devotees had gathered as usual.

"We were inside when the blast shook the temple so hard that all the glass windows of our building shattered and it felt like a strong earthquake had hit us," a devotee told The Independent yesterday.

The blast has been called "rare" and "shocking", owing to its location - just yards away from where the prime minister addresses the country during Independence Day celebrations.