Hospitals throughout Northern Ireland last night gave details of the horrific injuries suffered by many caught up in Saturday's explosion. A total of 111 people are recovering in hospitals from injuries which included loss of arms and legs, severe facial and body wounds caused by shrapnel, broken bones and extensive burns. One pregnant woman, aged 21, who sustained severe abdominal injuries, was described as ill but stable. Her unborn baby is understood to be stable.
The injured are spread among six hospitals throughout Northern Ireland.
At Altnagelvin Hospital, Co Derry, 22 people are detained - 12 adult women, two adult men and eight teenagers. Two women and one man have had legs amputated. Injuries among the patients include broken arms and legs, severe facial and body lacerations caused by shrapnel and extensive burns to all parts of people's bodies. Three patients were described as critical, one as ill, and 15 are said to be stable. Two of the male teenagers are Spanish; one is described as critical.
In the Royal Victoria Hospital, in Belfast, 15 women, five men, and two children were detained suffering from multiple injuries. Several of them are in a critical condition.
At the Erne Hospital in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, 24 patients are detained - 14 women, seven men, two girls and one boy. They are all described as ill, with injuries to their bodies and faces sustained by shrapnel.
A Spanish man and a child are among the patients at the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald, Belfast; the hospital is treating seven patients in total - four adults and three children.
In Tyrone County Hospital in Omagh, 15 women, eight men and three children are recovering from abdominal and chest wounds caused by shrapnel, and extensive burns.
Ten patients remained in South Tyrone Hospital in Dungannon last night. Three men, all described as ill, are suffering from chest injuries, severe shrapnel wounds, and facial and arm injuries. Seven women, including a pregnant woman, are suffering abdominal, chest, neck, back, facial, upper and lower limb injuries caused by shrapnel. All, apart from one woman, were described as ill, but stable. One woman, aged 29, suffering severe facial, chest and limb shrapnel injuries is serious, but stable. A spokesman at Altnagelvin Hospital said: "People have been very upset by the number of young people injured, particularly a high number of females, especially young females, and that makes it hard. Shrapnel is like a landmine effect, peppers the bodies with pieces of metal causing horrific damages."
A surgeon treating the wounded at the Tyrone County Hospital said a staff member saw one of their own children brought in seriously injured. Mr Dominic Pinto, a senior consultant surgeon, said: "One or two of my staff had their own children involved. Unfortunately, one case was quite a severe incident."
Describing the aftermath of Saturday's bomb as "a battlefield", he said: "When I arrived at the hospital there were so many people injured one didn't know where to start." At a press conference in the hospital yesterday, Mr Pinto, exhausted and upset after working through the night, added: "It saddens me to think that people perpetrate such atrocity. I want to appeal to these people and say what have they gained by doing this? It is their own people that they are injuring and maiming.
"I am still trying to fathom out what makes people do this. I am saddened and lost for words."
A driver died yesterday when an ambulance transferring bomb victims between hospitals was in collision with his car. The accident happened on the Knock Road in Belfast shortly after 9.30 a.m., police said.