Abu Dhabi: "I have had many nightmares but this was real. I even saw a car jump over my car. It was real chaos. I escaped with a leg injury." This was how Manoharan Reddy, a resident, described Tuesday's highway horror.

Others said they had never seen anything like this in their lives. "So many cars were burnt. So many people were crying inside the cars ... really, it was horrible. The explosions sounded like bombs going off," Srinivasa S., who travels to Abu Dhabi daily, wrote to Gulf News.

Omar, an intern at Al Mafraq Hospital, said: "The only way to describe the aftermath in the emergency room would be to call it chaotic. All efforts were made to help patients ... Thank God they were successful, as many people were treated for broken bones and tissue injury."