Indian officers mentioned the accident occurred amid a surge of passengers ready for trains to attend a serious Hindu non secular pageant.
Ten ladies and three kids have been amongst no less than 15 individuals 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 religious festival.
The incident unfolded on Saturday evening at about 8pm native time (14:30 GMT) on two platforms on the New Delhi Railway Station as enormous crowds waited to board trains to Prayagraj metropolis, the place the pageant is being held, some 624km (387 miles) southeast of the capital.
Delhi’s Chief Minister Atishi, who solely makes use of one title, instructed reporters that 15 individuals had died, whereas the native information outlet NDTV reported that the loss of life toll was 18 individuals.
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 seek out out what went mistaken.
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 individuals jostling as they tried to pressure their method onto packed practice carriages.
“Folks have been working throughout platforms and there was a chaotic state of affairs that led to individuals falling on one another,” a person who witnessed the occasions instructed 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 individuals 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 one greatest milestone on the Hindu non secular calendar, and officers mentioned about 500 million devotees have already visited the pageant 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 tens of millions of Hindus gathered to wash in sacred river waters. The centrepiece of the six-week pageant is the ritual bathing on the level the place the Ganges and Yamuna merge with the legendary Saraswati River.
No less than 36 individuals have been additionally crushed to loss of life in 2013, the final time the pageant was held in Prayagraj, and greater than 400 died after they have been trampled or drowned on a single day of the pageant in 1954.
India’s railway system, which is the fourth-largest practice community on this planet, has additionally witnessed severe accidents within the final two years, together with a collision in 2023 that killed no less than 288 individuals.
