At least 15 individuals have died, and an additional 10 have sustained injuries as a result of a collision at the New Delhi Railway Station.
Dr Ritu Saxena, the deputy medical superintendent of Lok Nayak Hospital in New Delhi, verified the numbers for BBC Hindi after thousands of individuals were reportedly crammed into the railway station on Saturday evening.
Overcrowding Leads to Fatalities at New Delhi Railway Station
According to the Reuters news agency, three of the deceased were minors, while ten were women.
In a post on X, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences to “all those who have lost their loved ones.”
According to BBC Hindi, a “massive crowd” had assembled at the station, which served as a hub for numerous individuals travelling to and from the Hindu religious festival, the Kumbh Mela.
Ruby Devi stated that the crowd at the primary railway terminal in the Indian capital was so large that she could not enter.
Another individual stated that the police were performing their duties, but the throng became excessive.
Officials indicated that two trains were experiencing delays within the station, while a third train, scheduled to depart for Prayagraj, the location of the Kumbh Mela, was awaiting its departure.
Dharmendra Singh, intending to travel to Prayagraj, informed India’s PTI news agency that the station was significantly more crowded than he had previously observed.
“In front of me, six or seven women were taken away on stretchers.”
KPS Malhotra, the deputy commissioner of police, stated that the situation had been “out of control for a brief spell of 10 to 15 minutes due to overcrowding.”
According to CNN, Indian Railways initially dismissed talk of a stampede as a “rumour.” However, they later verified that an undisclosed number of individuals had been injured and transported to the hospital.
The occurrence occurred just weeks after a pre-dawn crush at the Kumbh Mela festival in northern India, where tens of millions of Hindus had congregated to take a dip in sacred river waters on one of the holy days of a six-week festival. In that incident, dozens of individuals were killed.
