Inside hours of a lethal stampede that killed at the least 18 folks on Saturday night time, New Delhi Railway Station was a scene of desperation and chaos. Sirens wailed via the night time as ambulances and police autos rushed to the station, whereas frantic households searched for his or her lacking family members amid the overwhelming crowd.
Ambulances lined up exterior the New Delhi railway station late on Saturday night time. (HT Photograph)
By 12.30am, over a dozen ambulances, two dozen police autos, and a whole bunch of safety personnel had been stationed in and across the station. The entry and exit gates had been closely guarded, and there was an elevated safety presence at platforms 12 to 16. Ticket counters had been shut, and railway bulletins had been suspended till after 1.30am, including to the eerie ambiance.
Survivors described the horror of 1000’s crowding onto platforms as three Prayagraj-bound trains ready to depart for the Maha Kumbh, setting off last-minute confusion and panic that led to the stampede.
Eyewitness Madhu Gupta, a Noida resident who barely managed to board her prepare from Platform 14, described the moments of terror. “When an announcement was made about a special train arriving on Platform 15, people panicked. Some thought the Prayagraj Express had shifted platforms. There was no one to guide us. People were stuck together, gasping for air. I don’t know how my family survived,” she mentioned on the telephone with HT, nonetheless shaken.
Manoj Shukla, one other commuter, was trapped on the staircase to Platform 15 round 9.30pm when the overcrowding peaked. “I couldn’t reach the platform, but I saw people running across the tracks as soon as an announcement for the Magadh Express was made. People were piled on top of each other. There was no space to breathe. It was horrifying,” he mentioned, nonetheless in shock as he sat exterior Platform 14, unsure about how he would attain Prayagraj.
Pramod Kumar Singh, who was there to board a prepare to Bihar, mentioned he noticed a whole bunch of passengers being cleared from platforms 14, 15, and 16 an hour after the stampede. “It was chaos. There was nowhere to move; people were crying and pushing in every direction.”
Railway officers mentioned the congestion had begun increase at Platform 14, the place the Prayagraj Categorical was set to depart. Two different Prayagraj-bound trains—the Swatantrata Senani Categorical and the Bhubaneshwar Rajdhani—had been delayed, exacerbating the overcrowding. With passengers from all three trains caught, the scenario shortly spiralled uncontrolled.
By 3 am, a whole bunch of safety personnel and railway employees had cleared platforms 10 via 16, however for a lot of passengers, the injury was already carried out.
Many passengers who survived the stampede misplaced their baggage and important belongings.
Naveen Kumar, 23, was nonetheless trying to find his associates when HT approached him at 1.15am. “There was no official help till 10pm. Passengers and railway staff were the ones helping in the rescue,” he mentioned.
Vikas Thakur, 28, who missed his prepare to Darbhanga, mentioned: “From 7pm, the crowd kept building up. The number of police and railway staff was nowhere near enough to handle it. By 9 or 10pm, the station was left to manage itself—there wasn’t an inch of space on the platforms,” he mentioned. Together with his subsequent prepare scheduled for the morning, he determined to attend exterior the station somewhat than danger one other rush inside.
“When Prayagraj Express was standing at platform number 14, a heavy crowd was present at the platform. Swatantrata Senani Express and Bhubaneshwar Rajdhani were delayed and passenger of these trains were also present at platform no. 12, 13 and 14. That’s why the crowd became uncontrollable,” mentioned KPS Malhotra, DCP (Railways).