Indian officers stated the accident occurred amid a surge of passengers ready for trains to attend a significant Hindu non secular competition.
Ten girls and three youngsters had been amongst at the least 18 folks killed in a crowd crush at a prepare station in India’s capital New Delhi, as hundreds of Hindu pilgrims waited to board trains to attend the annual Mahakumbh Mela religious festival.
The incident unfolded on Saturday night time at about 8pm native time (14:30 GMT) on two platforms on the New Delhi Railway Station as big crowds waited to board trains to Prayagraj metropolis, the place the competition is being held, some 624km (387 miles) southeast of the capital.
Delhi’s Chief Minister Atishi, who solely makes use of one identify, initially instructed reporters that 15 folks had died, whereas the Press Belief of India later up to date the loss of life toll to 18 folks.
India’s Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw stated 4 trains had been deployed to “evacuate” a sudden and unprecedented surge of travellers on the station and an investigation has been ordered to search out out what went unsuitable.
Excessive-level inquiry ordered https://t.co/Egaifp5Onx
— Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) February 15, 2025
Video footage shared on social media by native information organisations confirmed folks jostling as they tried to pressure their manner onto packed prepare carriages.
“Folks had been working throughout platforms and there was a chaotic state of affairs that led to folks falling on one another,” a person who witnessed the occasions instructed India’s ANI information company.
The Occasions of India stated witnesses reported a “crowd surge” that was sparked by the delay of two trains which led to an unexpectedly massive variety of passengers ready on platforms. When folks rushed to board an arriving prepare, “the state of affairs spiralled uncontrolled, with some passengers fainting amid the sudden surge”, the media outlet reported.
“This sparked rumours of a stampede, resulting in additional panic,” it stated.
The Mahakumbh is the one largest milestone on the Hindu non secular calendar, and officers stated about 500 million devotees have already visited the competition because it started in January.
Crowd crushes repeatedly happen at India’s main non secular festivals.
No less than 30 people were killed in a crush on the Mahakumbh final month when tens of thousands and thousands of Hindus gathered to wash in sacred river waters. The centrepiece of the six-week competition is the ritual bathing on the level the place the Ganges and Yamuna merge with the legendary Saraswati River.
No less than 36 folks had been additionally crushed to loss of life in 2013, the final time the competition was held in Prayagraj, and greater than 400 died after they had been trampled or drowned on a single day of the competition in 1954.
India’s railway system, which is the fourth-largest prepare community on the earth, has additionally witnessed critical accidents within the final two years, together with a collision in 2023 that killed at the least 288 folks.
