Indian officers mentioned the accident occurred amid a surge of passengers ready for trains to attend a serious Hindu non secular competition.
Ten girls and three youngsters had been amongst no less than 15 folks killed in a crowd crush at a practice station in India’s capital New Delhi, as 1000’s of Hindu pilgrims waited to board trains to attend the annual Mahakumbh Mela non secular competition.
The incident unfolded on Saturday evening at about 8pm native time (14:30 GMT) on two platforms on the New Delhi Railway Station as large 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, advised reporters that 15 folks had died, whereas the native information outlet NDTV reported that the demise toll was 18 folks.
India’s Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw mentioned 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 fallacious.
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 method onto packed practice 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 advised India’s ANI information company.
The Occasions of India mentioned witnesses reported a “crowd surge” that was sparked by the delay of two trains which led to an unexpectedly giant variety of passengers ready on platforms. When folks rushed to board an arriving practice, “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 mentioned.
The Mahakumbh is the only largest milestone on the Hindu non secular calendar, and officers mentioned about 500 million devotees have already visited the competition because it started in January.
Crowd crushes frequently happen at India’s main non secular festivals.
At the least 30 folks had been killed in a crush on the Mahakumbh final month when tens of tens of millions 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.
At the least 36 folks had been additionally crushed to demise 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 practice community on this planet, has additionally witnessed critical accidents within the final two years, together with a collision in 2023 that killed no less than 288 folks.
