More than 2,000 people were standing with their eyes closed, chanting a prayer, when they sensed the room glow and heard a loud explosion. It was a little past 9.30 am on Sunday, October 29, the final day of a three-day convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses – a religious cult that identifies as Christian but does not follow beliefs of mainstream Christians – that was happening at the Zamra Convention and Exhibition Centre in Kalamassery in Kerala’s Ernakulam. Among those who had gathered were babies, children, and the elderly. But just as the prayers began, a blast occurred, followed by two more.
Opening their eyes, the devotees saw fire and smoke and before they could grasp what was going on, the auditorium’s five doors were opened and they heard shouts of people asking them to get out of the building. In the mayhem, one woman, yet to be identified, died of burn injuries. More than 30 others were taken to hospitals for treatment, six of whose condition is critical. A 12-year-old child among them suffered more than 70% burns and is on ventilator support.
“When the first blast occurred, it was like a flash hitting you, something you can sense even with your eyes closed. I cannot describe it,” said Bipin, a devotee from Idukki who works in Kochi and was at the convention with his wife. The couple had begun to run and were near the door when they heard the second blast. By then the air-conditioned hall was filled with smoke.
Bipin and other young men stopped in their tracks when they saw old people struggling to get up and went back to help them out. “By the time the Fire Force came, we had helped most people get out of the hall,” Bipin said.
In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, few could make sense of what had happened. Several people we approached were in shock, unable to voice what they went through. They stood rooted to the spot as Fire Force and police personnel arrived and told them to leave.
Jayan and his family from Pallikkara had arrived a little late and reached the convention centre five minutes after the explosion. “We had attended the convention on Friday and Saturday but didn't get a bus on time on Sunday. When we arrived, there was a lot of smoke coming from the hall and someone said there had been a big explosion and asked us to stay away,” Jayan said.
As the crowd thickened outside the hall, the police asked everyone to leave. Many of the devotees had left their belongings behind in their rush to get to safety. The police asked them not to stay back to search for their belongings just then.
Buses were arranged to take them to safety – hospitals or homes. Sixteen buses were at the spot by afternoon. One of the drivers, Baiju of St Mary’s bus service, said that the people boarding the bus looked scared and lost, and most did not have their belongings with them. The police provided them with a call centre number that they could later contact to check for their possessions.
A child and her grandmother waiting for their vehicle to Thodupuzha said that they heard three explosions, one after the other, and began to move out quickly, along with others. “We came only today, not on the first two days of the convention. This was the first event we attended in person after COVID-19 broke out. We were praying when the first blast occurred. When we opened our eyes, there was fire and smoke,” said Alphonsa, who was with her granddaughter Aleena, a class 10 student.
When Aleena saw the fire, she took her grandmother’s hand and moved out of the hall. “We looked for others we knew, to find out if they were okay. Some had sustained injuries,” she said.
“Young people were helping those who fell to get back on their feet. They did not run, they stayed back to help those who fell or were too slow to get out,” Alphonsa added, highlighting compassion in the face of disaster.