Blasts on Indian Commuter Trains Kill More Than 140

MARGARET WARNER:

It was the height of the bustling rush hour in India's financial center, Mumbai, when multiple bombs tore through the city's commuter rail network. Stunned survivors and bystanders watched rescue workers struggling in the pouring monsoon rain to reach the dead and wounded.

SHIVRAJ PATIL, Home Minister, India:

They are in the process of collecting the information about the passengers, and casualties, and all of those things.

MARGARET WARNER:

As workers cleared their way through debris, the death toll mounted to well over 130 by midnight. Authorities said all the bombs appear to have been planted in the first-class carriages of the trains.

Mumbai is not only a financial hub, but India's largest port city, a metropolis of more than 16 million. The prime minister's spokesman denounced the attacks as clear acts of terror.

SANJAYA BARU, Spokesman, Indian Prime Minister:

We will work to defeat the evil designs of terrorists and will not allow them to succeed. I urge the people to remain calm, not to believe rumors, and carry on their activities.

MARGARET WARNER:

India's home minister, Shivraj Patil, acknowledged the government had some intelligence an attack was coming, but not specific enough to stop it.

As night fell, police carried out raids across India, and other major cities were put on high alert.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The attacks bore the hallmarks of radical Islamic groups and also of Pakistani-backed Kashmiri separatists. But Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf quickly condemned the attacks.

The Mumbai carnage followed a grenade attack earlier in the day in Srinagar, the largest city in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Today's attacks were the deadliest in Mumbai since 1993, when the city was known as Bombay. A series of explosions killed more than 250 people that time; authorities blamed those attacks on criminal gangs.