From the blast scene

KATHMANDU, Feb 28: The site of the bomb blast, the front gate of Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) head office at Babarmahal, was crowded with people and vehicles including motorbikes parked nearby when the bomb went off at 1:11 pm.

The area is usually crowded as Kathmandu District Court is just to the north of the NOC office and to its south is the Auditor General´s Office. [break]

The unsuspecting crowd found itself in a state of terror when the huge explosion rocked the site, leaving two bodies scattered and several people injured. The explosion also caused minor damage to the parked motorcycles and the NOC compound wall.

An eyewitness, Renuka Thapa, who came to Kathmandu District Court to receive a court reappearance date, said that no sooner had she finished a cup of tea at a street-shop in front of the court than the bomb went off.

Just before the blast, a man had arrived at the scene on a motorbike with his son and parked it in front of the NOC gate. "The father asked the son to wait atop the motorcycle and walked towards the district court," said Thapa.

The man had hardly taken a few steps when the bomb went off, leaving the spot covered with a thick cloud of smoke. "When it cleared, the boy waiting for his father on the motorbike was lying on the ground." Police later identified the boy as Krishna Bahadur Tamang.

Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar at the incident site.

Apparently, another person, who used to beg in the area, was also killed.

Thapa, who had blood stains on her clothes, said pieces of flesh were scattered all over and one big piece landed on the head of a pedestrian who was passing by. "I would have been dead had I not walked away from the parking area," Thapa said, her voice trembling.

Within 15 minutes of the blast, police arrived at the scene and lifted the injured, eight altogether, and sent them to Bir Hospital in police vehicles. Later, one of the injured died in hospital at around 1:45 pm.

More police officials poured onto the site along with sniffer dogs and they immediately cordoned off the blast scene.

AIG Kuber Singh Rana arrived at around 2:45 pm, followed by Home Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachchhadar, who briefly addressed journalists and said the blast underscored a security threat, but not a security lapse.

An injured person undergoing treatment at Bir Hospital.

As police sealed off the site, many journalists were barred from reaching there. People who had parked their vehicles also had to wait for hours to take them out.

They were finally allowed to take their vehicles away at 3:35 pm, after police had taken the two bodies to Tribhuwan University Teaching Hospital for postmortem. Police personnel were seen busy noting down the numbers of the vehicles as they left the site.