18 Killed In Stampede At India’s New Delhi Train Station
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
NEW DELHI, INDIA (Worthy News) – India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sunday he was “distressed by the stampede” at a train station in India’s capital of New Delhi that killed at least 18 people, including 14 women.
Many victims were Hindu pilgrims traveling to the Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj in northern India, according to Delhi’s caretaker chief minister, Atishi, who uses only one name.
The stampede happened late Saturday as thousands of people gathered at the New Delhi railway station to wait to board a train.
Witnesses said the incident occurred after some passengers slipped and fell on others while coming down from a footbridge that connects train platforms.
Sheela Devi, who was at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narain Hospital in New Delhi to collect her daughter-in-law’s body, told reporters that an announcement about changing train platforms created confusion among the passengers, leading to the stampede.
The Delhi Police confirmed that assessment, saying in a statement that “the announcement of the Prayagraj Special arriving at platform 16 led to confusion because the Prayagraj Express was already at platform 14.”
According to police investigators, people who couldn’t reach their train at platform 14 thought their train was arriving at platform 16, leading to the stampede.
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“Additionally, there were four trains heading to Prayagraj, out of which three were delayed, causing unexpected overcrowding,” a police official said. “The crowd went out of control, and no one could control it,” recalled Nikhil Kumar, a shopkeeper who witnessed the crowd surge.
Prime Minister Modi said that his “thoughts are with all those who have lost their loved ones. I pray that the injured have a speedy recovery. The authorities are assisting all those who have been affected by this stampede.”
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw pledged that an investigation had been ordered to determine what caused the latest stampede.
The incident was due to raise more questions about crowd control in India, the world’s most populated nation of nearly 1.5 billion people.
At least 30 people were killed in a stampede at the six-week festival last month after tens of millions of Hindus gathered to take a dip in sacred river waters, Worthy News reported at the time. The festival is one of the most important religious events in India, a mainly Hindu country.
While the investigation into the latest tragedy was underway, reporters noticed scattered slippers, torn bags, and abandoned belongings strewn across the staircase, the bridge, and platforms 14 and 15.
Regular train services resumed Sunday, but the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency noticed that “the scars of the night” remained.
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