At least eight killed as car explodes in New Delhi

A car has exploded near the historic Red Fort in India's capital today, killing at least eight people and injuring several others. 

Several fire engines rushed to the scene after the blast near one of the gates of the Red Fort metro station in New Delhi. The cause of the explosion remained unclear.

Police said a 'slow-moving vehicle' stopped at a nearby red light at 6.52pm before it exploded by the Red Fort. 

Ambulances streamed into a nearby public hospital, carrying several injured people. Local media reported at least 13 people were killed and 24 were injured in the explosion, though this number has not been confirmed by officials. 

Footage showed damaged vehicles and a police cordon at the site. At least six vehicles and three rickshaws caught fire during the explosion.

Local officials are investigating the cause of the blast, which one witness described as 'window-shattering'. 

The Red Fort area was cordoned off amid a heavy police deployment as officers moved through the corridors.  

Outside, anxious relatives gathered after hearing that their loved ones had been brought in. 

Musarrat Ansari said her brother was injured after a burning car hit the motorbike he was riding. 

'He called me and said his leg was hurt - he couldn't walk,' she said. 

'I was at the metro station, going down the stairs, when I heard an explosion. I turned around and saw a fire. People started running helter-skelter,' Suman Mishra, whose husband owns a hotel in a nearby area, told Reuters.

Wali Ur Rehman said he was sitting at his shop when he heard a loud explosion. 'I fell from the impact of the explosion, it was that intense,' he told news agency ANI.  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences to those who had lost loved ones.

'May the injured recover at the earliest. Those affected are being assisted by authorities,' Modi posted on X

Formerly an imperial palace, the Red Fort is a major tourist attraction in New Delhi. Indian prime ministers address the nation from its ramparts on Independence Day, and it features on the largest banknote. 

Known locally as Lal Qila, the Red Fort is a sprawling, 17th-century Mughal-era edifice melding Persian and Indian architectural styles. 

The prime minister addresses the nation from the fort's ramparts every year on August 15, India's independence day.

The wider Uttar Pradesh region has been put on high alert in the wake of the explosion. 

Provincial official Amitabh Yash told local media that all senior officials in the region have been ordered to increase security at religious sites, sensitive districts, and border areas.

Meanwhile, cops in all districts of the region have been put on alert, and patrols and checks are to be increased. 

Delhi was the target of blasts during the 1980s and 1990s, with public places such as bus stations and crowded market areas hit in attacks blamed on Islamist militants or on separatists from the northern Sikh state of Punjab.

About a dozen people were killed in a briefcase explosion outside the Delhi High Court in 2011 - the last such major incident in the city.