A tragic stampede at New Delhi Railway Station happened late Saturday night, resulting in the deaths of at least 18 people. Thousands of people were trying to catch trains to Prayagraj for the Maha Kumbh festival. The chaos started around 10 pm when the crowd became too large to manage.
Eyewitnesses described the scene as frightening. Ajit, a sergeant in the Indian Air Force, recounted, “I was coming back from my duty, and the crowd was enormous. I tried to get people to move away from the platform, but no one listened.” Ajit and a friend helped several injured people.
The crowd was larger than the station could handle, one witness said, “It felt like a disaster waiting to happen. There were so many people that it was impossible to control them.”
Among the victims was Sanjay, who lost his sister in the stampede. “We were a group of 12 family members. We were still on the stairs when everything happened. We found her half an hour later, but by then it was too late,” he recalled, filled with sorrow.
The situation worsened when an announcement changed where one train would arrive, causing more people to rush to the platform. “No one was controlling the crowd,” another witness said. “When the announcer said the train would come on a different platform, everyone pushed to get there, and a stampede broke out.”
The station was also overcrowded because about 1,500 general tickets were being sold, and there were delays in trains. Pappu, a man from Patna, lost his mother in the panic. “She didn’t make it. We were just trying to go home,” he said, his voice shaking with sadness.
After the incident, Daulat Ram Chaudhary from the National Disaster Response Force said, “The situation is now under control. We have rescued the injured.” The authorities had anticipated a large crowd but were surprised by how quickly things got out of hand. KPS Malhotra, the Deputy Commissioner of Police Railway, said, “We thought we could manage the crowd, but it happened so fast. We will investigate what went wrong.”
On Sunday, the Railway Board created a special team to look into what led to the stampede. Dilip Kumar, a member of the Board, confirmed train services had resumed. “We have controlled the situation and even added four special trains to help with the crowd. Some people fainted and were taken to nearby hospitals,” he explained.
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