Terror struck Mumbai’s lifeline seven times in 11 minutes when the first-class compartments of local trains to the city’s western suburbs were ripped apart by powerful blasts. At least 150 people were killed and over 600 injured.

The blasts occured between 6.24 and 6.35 pm at Mahim, Bandra, Matunga, Borivli, Mira Road, Jogeshwari and Khar.

The blasts came just hours after suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba militants killed eight people, six of them tourists, in a series of grenade attacks in Srinagar.

Railway traffic on the Western line—the busiest of the three lines used by commuters to travel to and from work—was at its peak, with lakhs returning home, when the bombs went off.

Till evening, no one had claimed responsibility for the blasts. To a question, Police Commissioner A N Roy said obviously a terrorist outfit would be behind the blasts because ‘‘a normal human being could not have done this’’.

‘‘Our investigators are on the job. But our priority is also to ensure that nothing untoward takes place as a result of the blast,’’ Roy told reporters.

The first blast occurred on a train between Khar and Santacruz stations, another at exactly the same time on a train near Bandra. These were followed by explosions on trains at Jogeshwari, Mahim, Mira Road, Matunga, Borivali and Mahim stations. All the blasts took place inside first-class compartments, ripping them apart.

Train services on the Western line were completely suspended, all trains leaving Mumbai stopped and a red alert sounded in the city and the rest of the state. All phones lines were choked.

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