5 days ago
RCB fans were 2-3 times area's holding capacity outside Chinnaswamy Stadium: Analysis
Imagine 40 people packed into a bedroom of your 2BHK apartment: that was the density of the crowd around Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, where fans of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) gathered to catch a glimpse of their favourite players, who had just secured an IPL victory after 18 say that the roads encircling the stadium—Mahatma Gandhi Road, Cubbon Road, 83rd Road and Queens Road—were crammed with supporters. Google's public infrastructure data estimates the combined surface area of these roads at roughly 51,000 sqm. advertisementAccording to Chief Minister Siddharamaiah, some 200,000–300,000 people had congregated in that vicinity.
A simple analysis shows that, if two people occupy each square metre (approximately 10 sq ft), those four roads could accommodate around 100,000 individuals. In other words, that is equivalent to 20 people standing in a standard 1010 ft the CM's lower estimate of 200,000 fans, that translates to 40 people crammed into the same bedroom—essentially a completely packed room with almost no space to analysis is based on the Mapchecking tool developed by French developer Anthony Carter.
A similar situation prevailed at Vidhan Soudha. The Chief Minister said that earlier in the day, about 100,000 people had gathered in front of Vidhan Soudha, where the RCB team was being felicitated. The same crowd-mapping tool indicates that the stretch of Ambedkar Road running between the Cubbon Park and Raj Bhawan Road intersections—directly in front of Vidhan Soudha—could hold just over 41,000 SCENESadvertisementIndia Today's senior correspondent, Nikhil Naz, witnessed a stampede near the Cubbon Park metro station. He was jostled by the mob but somehow emerged described how many young people—particularly teenage girls and women—were trampled when two streams of the crowd began moving in opposite directions, while a third group blocked the road to dance. 'One stream was going from Cubbon Park metro to Gate 13, the other was moving from Gate 13 towards Gates 1–2, and a third group was dancing on the road. At one stage, we lost control and were pushed around,' he wrote.
RUMOURS PROVED FATALIndia Today reporter Apoorva Jayachandran witnessed rumours spreading about stadium entry tickets for the felicitation event. Although RCB had announced a limited number of free tickets on its website, people circulated claims that tickets could also be obtained via other means. Some believed they were available through the Ticket Genie app, while others thought physical tickets were being handed out at certain gates. This misinformation sparked confusion and noted that some attendees wandered around in search of a mobile signal so they could download the Ticket Genie app, while others rushed to get physical tickets. A few resorted to extreme measures: social media visuals show people climbing trees and scaling razor-wire fences to jump into the Today also found further evidence of ticket-related rumours being spread across social media Watch
