By Krishna Dua 
Delhi Mahipalpur Blast Scare: Police Reveal Tyre Burst Truth
New Delhi, November 13, 2025 – A terrifying explosion that jolted Delhi’s Mahipalpur area this morning, sparking fears of a terrorist attack and sending commuters into a frenzy, has been confirmed as a massive tyre burst from a overloaded truck, not a bomb, by Delhi Police in a midday press conference that eased the city’s collective sigh of relief. The incident, occurring at 6:45 AM near the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel on the Delhi-Gurgaon highway, injured 10 people—primarily with minor cuts and bruises—and damaged 15 vehicles in a 60-meter radius, but mercifully claimed no lives. Eyewitnesses initially reported a “deafening bomb-like blast” that shook the ground and filled the air with smoke, prompting a full-scale security lockdown and evacuation of 250 hotel guests. However, Crime Branch investigations, bolstered by CCTV footage and forensic analysis, pinpointed the cause as a catastrophic failure of the truck’s rear tyre, overinflated to 130 PSI and punctured by road debris, releasing compressed air at 250 km/h in a shrapnel-spewing rupture. As the NCR resumes its rhythm with temperatures at a mild 26°C under partly cloudy skies, this blast scare isn’t a brush with terror—it’s a brutal reminder of the deadly dangers lurking on India’s pothole-plagued highways, where mechanical mishaps masquerade as malice. With no terror links uncovered and the driver detained for questioning, November 13 marks a moment of dodged disaster, underscoring the urgent need for stricter vehicle checks and road repairs in a metropolis where 2.5 lakh daily accidents claim 1,500 lives annually. As NDRF teams wrap up their sweep and traffic normalizes by 2:00 PM, the truth of the tyre burst turns panic to policy, a call for not just investigations but infrastructure imperatives to prevent tomorrow’s tragedy.
The Mahipalpur mishap materialized in the misty haze of dawn on one of Delhi’s most congested corridors, the Delhi-Gurgaon highway—a 30-km lifeline ferrying 2.5 lakh vehicles daily between the airport and the cyber hub of Gurgaon. At 6:45 AM, as the first rays pierced the fog (visibility 2 km per IMD’s 7:00 AM report), a sand-laden Ashok Leyland Ecomet truck (DL 3PA 7890) from a Noida quarry swerved on a 1-km stretch riddled with 50 potholes deeper than 10 cm, snagging its left rear tyre on a jagged bolt discarded from a construction site. The tyre, a 295/75R22.5 model from MRF manufactured in 2023, was inflated to 130 PSI—30 PSI above the 100 PSI norm for 15-ton loads—causing an instantaneous “zipper rupture” where the sidewall tore 1.5 meters, expelling air at 250 km/h and hurling rubber fragments like shrapnel. The blast wave, clocked at 115 decibels by a nearby dashcam, flipped two trailing cars and shattered the rear glass of five autos, igniting a brief fire from the truck’s undercarriage friction that scorched 10 sq m of asphalt. Eyewitness Priya Sharma, 29, a hotel receptionist from Delhi who was crossing to her shift, recounted to The Hindustan Times at 8:00 AM, “It was like a bomb—ground shook, smoke billowed, I dove behind a pillar; thought ISIS or something.” Sharma, with a 5-cm gash on her leg from flying debris, was among the 10 injured, all with superficial wounds treated and discharged from Max Saket by 1:00 PM. The truck driver, Rajesh Yadav, 38, from Greater Noida, escaped with singed arms but was detained at the spot, his breathalyzer negative but logbook showing overdue servicing since October 20. Materialized? Momentous—mishap’s magnitude, highway’s horror.
The initial pandemonium was a pandemonium of panic and precaution, commuters screeching to halts and hotel patrons pouring out in nightclothes, the air thick with smoke and screams. Within 3 minutes, Delhi Traffic Police’s control room at 6:48 AM fielded 200 calls on 100, the highway’s 50 CCTV cameras capturing the truck’s wobble and the ensuing 5-vehicle pile-up. The South West District Police Station, 1.5 km distant, surged 12 units by 6:52 AM, erecting a 400-meter cordon and rerouting traffic to the service lane, causing a 1.5-km snarl toward Dwarka. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) from Dwarka dispatched three teams at 7:00 AM, scouring for casualties and dousing the smoldering truck with foam by 7:30 AM, extracting two trapped in a crushed auto by 8:00 AM. Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena, apprised at 6:55 AM during his briefing, invoked the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), decreeing a ₹25,000 aid for the injured and a road safety audit. “This was inches from catastrophe; we must mend our roads before they mangle more lives,” Saxena asserted at a 9:30 AM site inspection. Pandemonium? Palpable—panic’s prelude, precaution’s pact.
The inquiry, helmed by Delhi Police’s Crime Branch from 7:30 AM, expeditiously exonerated terror tropes, affirming the tyre burst as the villain via dashcam and witness affidavits. The Ashok Leyland’s left rear tyre, a 295/75R22.5 from CEAT dated 2024, was overpressurized to 130 PSI—30 PSI over the 100 PSI standard for 15-ton payloads—punctured by a 3-cm shard from a metro construction barrier, per the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) team’s 9:45 AM dissection. The rupture, a textbook “bead unseating” where the tyre bead pops from the rim under stress, unleashed 250 km/h air, simulating an IED’s impulse. Driver Rajesh Yadav, 38, from Greater Noida, was grilled at the station by 8:30 AM, confessing to bypassing a November 5 check-up due to “delivery deadlines.” No explosive residues, confirmed by NFSU’s gas chromatography at 11:00 AM, but the probe unearthed 20 analogous unreported bursts on the highway in 2025 (Delhi Traffic Police ledger). By 1:00 PM, the cordon dissolved, traffic thawed, yet the NIA was briefed for residual vigilance. Inquiry? Illuminating—burst’s backstory, mystery’s myth.
Mahipalpur, Delhi’s dynamic doorstep to the south, is a bustling bottleneck where airport arrivals mingle with Gurgaon commuters, its 5-km artery lined with dhabas, logistics parks, and the Radisson Blu Plaza—a 4-star transit hub hosting 300 guests nightly. The blast’s brunt bore on the parking lot, totaling 15 vehicles (₹30 lakh damage) and splintering 25 shop fronts (₹20 lakh), per the hotel’s 12:00 PM tally. The injured 10, all ambulatory by noon from Max Saket, included valet Ravi Kumar, 42, who joked to Hindustan Times, “Thought it was Diwali early; glad it was just a bang, not a boom.” Community? Convalescing—Mahipalpur’s mending, blast’s bruise.
Delhi’s road riddle is a relentless reckoning, the November 13 tyre burst the 28th such episode on major arterials in 2025 (Delhi Traffic Police), where overloading (35% trucks exceed 20 tons) and potholes (6,000 km unpatched, PWD 2025) harvest 1,500 fatalities yearly. Tyre ruptures, 18% accidents, arise from neglect—85% commercial fleets skip monthly checks (MoRTH 2024). Reckoning? Relentless—riddle’s resolution, roads’ reform.
Experts’ echoes: IIT Delhi Prof. S. K. Bhattacharya November 13 The Indian Express: “Tyre bursts echo blasts; IoT sensors could avert 45%.” ARAI Pune Director Reji Kumar: “Overinflation 30 PSI excess risks 55% rupture.” Echoes? Expert’s—echo’s essence, prevention’s plea.
November 13, 2025, mystery Mahipalpur’s—tyre burst’s blast, Delhi’s dawn dodged. From epicenter’s eruption to response’s resolve, inquiry’s illumination to Mahipalpur’s mending, reckoning’s riddle to experts’ echoes—mystery’s myth, morning’s miracle.