'Dropped bag led to stampede at NDLS'

A large piece of luggage falling from a passenger who had it on their head triggered the stampede that killed 18 people—including four children and 11 women—at New Delhi railway station in February, railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told Parliament on Friday.

- Neha LM Tripathi

The minister, responding to a written question by Samajwadi Party MP Ramji Lai Suman, said a high-level inquiry panel had identified the falling headload as the primary cause of the tragedy that occurred on February 15.

The stampede happened during the evening rush around 9:15-9:30pm on the staircase connecting platforms 14 and 15, as thousands converged on the station for Bihar-bound trains amid the Maha Kumbh festival on at the time in Prayagraj.

“There was a big headload falling from one of the passengers and the pressure was passed on to the stairs of platforms 14/15, resulting in the tripping of passengers,” Vaishnaw said in his parliamentary reply. The incident occurred at 8.48pm on foot-over-bridge 3.

The victims died from traumatic asphyxia, according to postmortem examinations.

The committee found that while sufficient crowd management protocols were in place, passenger density had gradually increased on the foot-overbridge after 8.15pm.