She said: "We had actually been at that market before the explosion.

"It is frightening to know we were that close to the attack.

"We could have easily been caught up in the explosions if we had stayed at the market longer.

"Luckily we were on the other side of town at the time of the attacks but our hotel was very close to one of the bombed areas.

"We only found out what had happened when we switched on the TV in our hotel room.

"Delhi is a very chaotic city anyway so it would be impossible to tell if a major incident had occurred.

"We phoned home immediately to let everyone know we were all right."

The deadliest bomb of the three killed 43 people in the southern Sarojini Nagar market and the third was thrown off a bus just prior to it exploding in the Govindpuri area.

Joanne, from Pennsylvania, who is on holiday with a friend, grew up in New York and has worked at the Echo for two years.

She said she had been looking forward to visiting India for the first time and planned to travel to the Taj Mahal.

Despite the chaos caused by the blasts she said she has no plans to cut short her trip.

She said: "It was very worrying because we did not know if anything else was going to happen.

"When something like that happens you realise how lucky you are."

Joanne and her friend Nadia have now left Delhi and have travelled south west to Rajasthan. The pair are currently in Jaipur. They plan to spend a further night in Delhi tomorrow before flying home on Friday.