Delhi stampede toll 18, Rly panel begins probe

Jignasa Sinha, Hemani Bhandari, Karn Pratap Singh and Neha LM Tripathi

- Paras Singh, Jasjeev Gandhiok, and Karn Pratap Singh

NEW DELHI: Two more people died from injuries sustained during Saturday night's stampede at the national capital's main railway station when thousands attempted to board trains heading to Prayagraj for the Maha Kumbh festival, taking the death toll to 18, officials said.

The tragedy, which unfolded at the station's Ajmeri Gate end, exposed critical failures in crowd management on a night when officials sold 7,600 unreserved tickets in just two hours for trains heading to Prayagraj, where the festival has been one of the top priorities of both the central and state government.

"There was surge in crowd to board the trains heading for Prayagraj for the ongoing Mahakumbh," Indian Railways said in a statement. Most of the crowd was waiting at platform 14-15 and the foot bridge and stairs leading to it as they waited for the Prayagraj Express. "Seeing the surge in crowd for Prayagraj, a special train was announced for Prayagraj from Platform No 12. The incident took place around 9.15PM on the staircase of platforms 14 and 15," it added.

The resulting confusion - many mistakenly believed the Prayagraj Express scheduled to depart at 10.10pm was being moved to platform 12 - proved lethal for passengers already pressed between delayed services and thousands of new arrivals holding unreserved tickets, eyewitnesses and officials who spoke to HT on condition of anonymity said.

The Railways named a twomember committee of Narsingh Deo, Northern Railway's principal chief commercial manager (PCCM), and Pankaj Gangwar, its principal chief safety commissioner (PCSC) to investigate the stampede.