Accompanied by his child on a trolley, an injured man being wheeled into Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital. Picture by Rajesh Kumar

New Delhi, Sept. 13: His left shoulder bleeding from shrapnel wounds, Sudhanshu Kumar tried to push his way through a virtual sea of people to the emergency ward at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.

The 25-year-old, doing his MPhil in Asian studies at JNU, pushed aside with his right hand dozens of volunteers as they rushed to help him.

“I’m fine,” he said, eyes anxiously scanning stretchers wheeling in patients with critical injuries.

“But I don’t know where my friends are... Anuj and Rajiv... we were together at Central Park when the blast occurred. I was knocked unconscious for a few moments. I haven’t seen them since,” he pleaded with policemen guarding the emergency wing as they blocked anyone other than medical staff and patients from entering.

Around him, sobbing relatives searched for victims, their non-stop wail broken only by the siren of ambulances bringing in the injured.

Volunteers cleared the 20-metre stretch from the trauma centre to the emergency ward and camera bulbs flashed every time a patient was stretchered in.

Some 30 metres away from the emergency ward, Naeem Khan sobbed as his younger brothers tried to comfort him.

The eldest among his siblings, Naeem said he had a bitter argument earlier in the day with his father. Out on the streets of Karol Bagh’s Gaffar Market at the time of the blast there, his father now lay in a hospital bed.

The hospital’s chief medical officer said over 60 people had been admitted. By 9.15pm, nine had been declared dead. Five were critical.

Officials said victims from Karol Bagh, Connaught Place and Barakhamba Road had also been admitted to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital and Lady Hardinge Hospital.

Those injured in Greater Kailash — reportedly the site of the weakest of the blasts that rocked the capital today — were taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

Delhi mayor Arti Mehra — of the BJP — said around 80 people had been admitted to hospitals.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, party leader Sajjan Kumar and the CPM’s Sitaram Yechury also visited the injured, as did junior home minister Sriprakash Jaiswal.

Tanvir Kumar, a private security guard at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, said he didn’t know about the blasts till the first ambulance reached around 7.05 in the evening.

“The images,” he added, “are going to stay with me forever.”