It was a calm Friday afternoon with lawyers having consultations with their colleagues on the court premises in Lucknow.

Suddenly, there was a bang and blood and bodies were strewn all around. Profusely bleeding people started running helter skelter as they tried to come to terms as to what had happened. Before it came to be known that that a bomb had exploded, many were killed and several wounded.

Similar scenes were witnessed on the court premises in Varanasi and Faizabad, The bombs, most of them planted on cycles, went off blowing away the tin sheets near the lawyers chambers.

"I was talking to my client when a bomb exploded and for few seconds I was unable to think what has happened. It took me minutes to realize that it was a bomb blast," said a woman lawyer at the Lucknow court.

The lawyer said she saw people were running here and there.

"My body is still shivering with the sound of the blast," the shocked advocate said. The vehicles in the court parking area were strewn everywhere and seats of some of the vehicles were thrown in the air.

"As soon as I entered the court premises on my motorcycle, I heard a loud sound. First, I did not understand what was it. Then I saw steel pellets scattered in about 10 m of the area," a man, who visited the court in Faizabad, said.

Another lawyer in Varanasi said the blasts took them unawares as they were "busy talking to the clients".

"We did not understand what was happening. Suddenly I heard loud cries and some people who were profusely bleeding running. When I came out I saw a seat of a cycle in the air. The seat of lawyers were also blown off," a lawyer at Varanasi court complex said.