Celebration turns into chaos: How Bengaluru stampede unfolded during RCB's IPL bash

India Today

2 days ago

What began as a city-wide celebration for Royal Challengers Bengaluru's historic Indian Premier League title win turned tragic on Wednesday, June 4, after a stampede near the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium left 11 people dead and over 40 injured.RCB had announced celebrations with fans in Bengaluru on Wednesday, a day after they defeated Punjab Kings in the IPL 2025 final to end the 18-year-wait for silverware.advertisementThe local authorities had denied permission for an open-top bus parade that was scheduled to run from the Vidhana Soudha to the Bengaluru stadium-a distance of just one kilometre. However, over two lakh fans thronged the area to catch a glimpse of the RCB team, returning home with the trophy after their 18-year-long wait. RCB had announced a celebratory event in the evening with the fans.
While entry to the stadium was permitted only through passes, fans without access gathered in massive numbers around the premises. According to preliminary information shared with the government, a temporary slab placed over a drain near the stadium premises collapsed under the weight of those standing on it. The collapse reportedly caused panic, leading to a stampede.Here is the account of Nikhil Naz, Consulting Editor – Sports, who was at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium along with cameraman Deepak, describing how the stampede unfolded.advertisementThe stampede happened outside Cubbon Park Metro Station. It occurred as a huge crowd of youth, mostly males, blocked a road to dance. People who were trying to move to either side of the road could not move because the road was blocked by this boisterous crowd. That's when people started pushing into the crowd, trying to move either to the left or the right side of the stadium.In the melee, young people-mostly girls and some teenage boys-got trampled upon. There were no security personnel in this area. Security had restricted themselves to only the gates.The people who got trampled fainted and were brought inside the stadium to be taken to hospital in the ambulances that were deployed inside. Some were taken to hospital by ambulance. But because there were only two ambulances inside, some weren't lucky enough to get one.Those who didn't get an ambulance were carried in the arms by security personnel. These security people ran towards the main road to find cars to take these unconscious people to the nearby hospital. Because the roads immediately outside the stadium were blocked by crowds, unconscious people had to be carried for 500 metres to reach a point where regular traffic was flowing.advertisementWe got caught in the crowd because we were heading to Gate 13, our entry point. When we started going towards the gate, there were three different forces: one going in one direction (Cubbon Park to Gate 13), another going in the opposite direction (from Gate 13 towards Gates 1 and 2), and a third force of people who were standing in the middle of the road, screaming and dancing.At one stage, we lost control of our movement and naturally got pushed around, eventually reaching outside the whirlpool of the crowd. But because me and Deepak (my cameraman) are full-grown men, we could survive the push of the crowd. Women and young male fans, however, would have easily succumbed to the force of the crowd and got trampled upon.In a statement, RCB said it amended the fan interaction event immediately upon learning of the incident. "The safety and well-being of everyone is of utmost importance to us," the statement said.BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia acknowledged there were lapses in the organisation of the event, but clarified that the cricket board had no role in it. IPL chairman Arun Dhumal said the board was not even informed about who was behind the arrangements.The RCB team was earlier felicitated by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah at the Vidhana Soudha. Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar had received the players at the airport earlier in the day before joining them for the event in the evening. You May Also Like
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