A celebratory event marking Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s historic IPL title win turned tragic on Wednesday after a stampede near M Chinnaswamy Stadium left at least 11 people dead and several others injured, according to latest media reports.
Video of people in huge number fainting and falling to ground is now going viral on social media, a video now widely circulated showed a man being resuscitated with CPR by the bystanders nearby. Although, with all due efforts the man could be brought back to consciousness.
According to a report in The Hindu, six deaths have been confirmed at Bowring Hospital in Shivajinagar.
According another report in News18, injured persons have been admitted to the Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital.
The whole joyous celebration turned into chaotic tragedy near stadium gates, where thousands of fans had assembled to welcome their victorious cricket team.
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said that the crowd was "uncontrollable" but refused to confirm the number of casualties or those injured in the stampede.
"I think this is not a controllable crowd. I apologise to all the people of Bengaluru and Karnataka, we wanted to take a procession, but the crowd is uncontrollable. We had arranged (security measures) for a crowd of 5,000. But we can't use lathis on a young vibrant crowd."
According to reports, a large crowd of RCB fans waiting to enter M. Chinnaswamy Stadium began banging on the gates after Bengaluru City Police urged them to leave the premises and watch the celebrations via livestream. The situation spiralled out of control when some resorted to jumping over the gates and fences to get inside the stadium.
The Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has slammed the state government over the incident. In a post on X, the BJP targeted the Congress government, saying, "Seven dead. Many are battling for their lives after a stampede caused by the irresponsibility of the Congress government. No crowd control measures. No basic arrangements. Just chaos. While innocent people died, Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar were busy shooting reels and hogging the limelight with cricketers. Shame on this photo-op Congress government.
