‘We are ok’: Foreigners tweet about Varanasi blast

NEW DELHI - Slovakian Brano Gege, a first time visitor to Varanasi, had been enjoying the Ganga ‘aarti’ on the ghats of the ancient city, where he had been staying for the last two nights. Instead, he became a witness to a terror attack.

“#varanasi we are ok, have been hundreds meter from the blast, around 20 people injured from attack at ghat. Leaving tomorow to Bodgaya,” Gege posted on his twitter account at about 8.30 p.m.

He had arrived in Varanasi Saturday, after a sojourn to Nepal and written about his impressions. “Back to Incredible India. I am in one of the oldest and holiest place in world - Varanassi, really mixed feelings from unbelievable city,” tweetedd Gege.

Similarly, Argentine Javi Lopez Regueira, a resident of Buenos Aires, wrote about how near he was to the blast site. “A bomb exploded in Varanasi just less than 100 meters from where I stood. Luckily I’m fine and nothing happened,” he tweeted in Spanish.

Another foreign tourist with the twitter account name of Vanvan, posted a photograph of a distant ghat, where a mushroom of white smoke arose from lit torches. “At local time 18:17, dinner at Man Mandir Ghat and looking at the Ganges river before the bomb exploded, the locals reported one death, she tweeted in Chinese. She had been travelling around India, taking photos and posting them on her account.

A couple of foreigners are said to be among the injured, after a bomb exploded on the bank of the Ganga during Tuesday evening’s ‘maha aarati’ watched by hundreds, sparking off a stampede. A two-year-old girl is said to be dead, and over twenty injured in the blast.

In a statement issued Tuesday night, Tourism Minister Kumari Selja condemned the blasts, terming it a “tragic incident”.