Santosh, who died in the blast on Saturday

New Delhi, Sept. 27: Little Santosh paid a huge price for being late for tuition. The nine-year-old was blown apart by two bike-borne killers in a blast as the Saturday curse that bloodied the capital a fortnight ago struck again.

An eyewitness said the boy yelled at the bikers speeding away from the narrow lanes of the Mehrauli flower market that they had “dropped” a plastic bag when it exploded on him.

“I saw his neck being ripped apart,” Pankaj Khattar shuddered. “There was blood everywhere.”

Twenty-four people were injured in the 2.05pm blast that police said was of low-intensity but had enough power to destroy four electronics shops in the crowded south Delhi market, close to Qutab Minar.

Santosh’s sister Puja said he had set out from home around 1.30 for the 5-10 minute walk to his tuition classes, which start about 1.45. “When I heard about the blast, I went looking for him but was told he hadn’t reached. He never bunked tuition, I don’t know what happened today,” the 12-year-old sobbed as mother Rekha kept drifting in and out of consciousness.

The kids’ father works as a labourer and the family had migrated from Bihar in the eighties.

“We now know one person is dead,” deputy commissioner of police H.G.S. Dhaliwal said. Agencies, however, put put the toll at two, saying a 60-year-old man had succumbed to injuries in hospital.

Police have sounded an alert for the two men, believed to be in their early thirties, riding a black motorcycle.

“We have sounded an alert for them. The bomb was in a tiffin box inside a polybag,” joint commissioner (southern range) Ajay Kashyap said.

Police sources said two men had been detained.

The explosion came exactly two weeks after five near-simultaneous blasts killed 24 people at Connaught Place, Karol Bagh and Greater Kailash — household names across India.

In Mehrauli, an eyewitness said the bikers dropped a packet and sped away. “This kid saw the bag being dropped and yelled ‘bhaisaab, apka bag gir gaya hai’. But the bikers didn’t stop. As the boy went near the bag, I saw it explode.”

Tilak Raj, a dealer in spare parts, said he saw a child lying on the ground, head ripped off. “I saw a Pulsar speeding away with two people on it wearing black trousers and blue shirts. They wore helmets.”

Other witnesses said the police reached the spot an hour after the blast and forensic experts two hours later.

A doctor at AIIMS, where many of the injured were taken, said one person’s head was like a “mound” of flesh. “A young girl, Sheetal, who studies in Class VI, had her tongue cut in half.”