Indian officers stated the accident occurred amid a surge of passengers ready for trains to attend a serious Hindu spiritual pageant.
Ten girls and three youngsters have been amongst a minimum of 18 individuals killed in a crowd crush at a prepare 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 night time 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 identify, initially advised reporters that 15 individuals had died, whereas the Press Belief of India later up to date the demise toll to 18 individuals.
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 seek out out what went flawed.
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 power their approach onto packed prepare 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 advised India’s ANI information company.
The Instances 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 individuals 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 greatest milestone on the Hindu spiritual calendar, and officers stated about 500 million devotees have already visited the pageant because it started in January.
Crowd crushes commonly happen at India’s main spiritual festivals.
A minimum of 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.
A minimum of 36 individuals have been additionally crushed to demise 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 prepare community on the earth, has additionally witnessed severe accidents within the final two years, together with a collision in 2023 that killed a minimum of 288 individuals.
