Witnessing in Near Real-Time: Tweets from Bangalore Blasts

In my early morning blog reading, I was stunned to receive a tweet from Paul Mooney indicating there was news breaking yet again on Twitter. In horror, we watched in real time using Summize first hand accounts of Bangalore residents tweeting their experience –before major news sources were able to publish.

I scoured back a few pages in summize (Twitter search engine) to see reports coming in about “two blasts” then “four blasts” then “Six blasts”, all of this was coming in near real time. Unfortunately there is some noise, as not all of the reports were accurate. Here are some select tweets that caught my eye.

“i hear the ambulance sirens” -@abhin4v

“-bangalore – be calm and be brave. the blasts were aimed at creating panic only” -@pavanaja

“Just heard about the blasts in Bangalore. Rushing to pick wife up.” -@simplylezz

“@ClaudiaBliss Thank you, made it safe. It’s not as bad as the TV makes it out to be.” -@simplylezz

Mukund, a Silicon Valley resident happens to be in Bangalore and was been reporting via twitter.

Although the point of this post is to show how quickly news spreads, some were killed by these blasts, I give my best to their friends and families during this tragedy.

Update: Finished an inquiry call with a client in Bangalore (had to use skype) he conveyed that out of 7 bombs only one person was killed was a relief. The city is on ‘red alert’ lots of police checkpoints he feels secured at home, there are even ID checkpoints at his condo complex.