The police cordoned off the area surrounding the charred remains of the Israeli embassy’s Toyota Innova car, which was the target of Monday’s alleged terrorist attack.
As the media was kept at a distance, forensic experts were carefully gathering shreds of evidence from the site of explosion on Safdarjung Road, at least 300 metres from the Prime Minister’s residence. Fire tenders had already doused the fire caused by the blast. The explosion was reportedly triggered by a magnetic device.
The stretch approaching the site of the incident, had been barricaded from both ends and no civilian movement was allowed. There was massive deployment of police and security personnel in the area.
As policemen tried to keep the mediapersons at a safe distance, an eyewitness, Ravi Singh, a petrol-pump owner approached the mediapersons and showed them the recording of the flaming vehicle, which he had captured on his mobile.
“I was at my petrol-pump when a powerful explosion was heard in the vicinity. As I stepped out of my office along with my staff to check, we saw a car engulfed in flames. I immediately rushed to the spot,” he was heard yelling as he ran away. Another mediaperson, who claimed to have been behind the car, as it exploded, later tweeted claiming that 40-year-old Israeli embassy staff, Ms Til Yehoshua was “flung out of the car when the explosion took place”.
He further tweeted, “Such was the courage of the woman, she was giving directions to the rescue team at the spot, (which had rushed to the site within minutes of the blast).” The scribe tweeted that Ms Yehoshua wanted to be taken straight to the embassy, instead being rushed to hospital.”
Later around 7 pm, the ill-fated vehicle was towed away to Tughlaq Road police station. Earlier, as the reporters started getting restless, a press conference was announced at the Tughlaq Road police station where Delhi police commissioner B.K. Gupta was mobbed and the conference almost got cancelled.