LAHORE, Jan 10: A heightened sense of anxiety gripped people as the news of the suicide blast outside the Lahore High Court sent shockwaves throughout the city on Thursday.

The blast, which could be heard from up to 3km, was soon replaced by the wailing sirens of dozens of police vehicles, fire trucks and ambulances rushing to the scene, while The Mall was cordoned off at the intersection with the Canal.

More than 50 Edhi ambulances were deployed, while Rescue 1122 sent nine ambulances, a mortuary van and a rescue vehicle to the scene.

The rumours of further blasts on McLeod Road, Davis Road and in Chauburji that spread through bogus calls to emergency services, fuelled panic as emergency vehicles were also seen going to these locations.

Anxious citizens calling up their relatives in the area caused mobile phone networks to ‘choke’ above 100 per cent capacity for almost three hours, according to a senior quality control engineer at a telecommunication company.

Lawyers who were finishing a meeting for the restoration of the judiciary within the high court compound panicked and fled, while some rushed to the scene of the explosion, some 100 yards away.

Malik Muhammad Azeem, a lawyer, said he and some other lawyers along with passers-by ran to the scene to help blast victims. “After we heard the blast at 11:45am we ran outside and saw the injured and dead. We helped them to the hospital,” said Mr Azeem, showing the blood of victims on his hands. “We also tried to give assistance to a high court clerk, Shoaib. He died in our hands as we tried to take him to the dispensary.”

Another lawyer, Khurram Khosa, described how the entire scene of the explosion was cordoned off for “only 15 minutes” and was followed by a clearing operation that removed body parts, the carcass of a horse, metal sharps and ‘pallets’ designed to maximise destruction.

“I witnessed the entire operation and at no point did I see any forensic experts being brought in,” said Mr Khosa, adding that it followed the modus operandi of the government in the wake of the Rawalpindi blasts in which valuable evidence of the crime scene was lost.

Later, caretaker Chief Minister Ejaz Nisar and Governor Khalid Maqbool briefly visited the injured in hospitals.

At the city morgue near Neela Gumbad Chowk, scores of mourning relatives of the victims came to identify the bodies of their loved ones. Weeping disconsolately one of them said: “Is this Islamic? How can Muslims do this to each other?”

Small business owner Tariq said he closed down his shop upon hearing the news, and summed up the prevalent mood by holding the government responsible for it “because it doesn’t want to see elections going ahead”.

At the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) students offered fateha for the victims and launched a blood donation drive as well as a fund raising campaign for the victims. The Student Action Committee (SAC) put out a similar call for blood donors.

Reacting to the news, Suhail Zafar, a doctor, said: “The government’s first duty is to protect the lives of its citizens. When it can’t do that it’s time for it to leave - this has happened because of our intervention in Afghanistan.”

Jahanzeb Ali Naveed, an employee at a telecom company, said: “You almost expect a thing like this to happen in Rawalpindi, Quetta or Karachi - but here in Lahore? Now I feel unsafe in my own city.”

As a goodwill gesture, the Edhi Foundation announced it would shift the bodies of the victims to their residences free of charge. It can be contacted on its emergency number 115 or at the Edhi Centre at Mayo Hospital.