Bengaluru: At least 11 people died in a stampede that took place near Chinnaswamy Stadium in Karnataka's Bengaluru during Royal Challengers Bengaluru's (RCB) IPL 2025 victory celebrations on Wednesday, June 4. All the deceased were under 40 years of age.
Among the deceased were three teenagers, including 14-year-old Divyashi, the youngest fan who died in the stampede. Meanwhile, six people were in the age group between 20 to 30 years.
The victims have been identified as AS Divyanshi (14), Shivalinga (17), Chinmayi (19), Bhoomik (20), Prajwal (20), Shravan (20), Sahana (25), Akshata (27), Devi (29), Doresha (32) and Manoj (33).
The tragedy unfolded when the victory celebrations were taking place inside the stadium. According to reports, confusion over the victory parade, free passes, overcrowding and limited seats at the stadium are said to be some of the major reasons that led to the stampede.
During the chaos, some people fell on the ground, some got injured while trying to scale huge gates to gain entry into the stadium.
Noting that the stadium has a capacity for 35,000 people, but 2-3 lakh people had come, Karnataka Chief Minister Sidaramaiah, said, "The match happened the previous evening and this event was organised on Wednesday by the cricket association, so no one had expected that so many people would come. The expectation was the equivalent number of people for the stadium's capacity or slightly more than that may gather."
"There are small gates. The people entered through the gates. They have broken the gates also, so a stampede has taken place. Nobody had expected so much of a crowd to come. Prima facie looks like that. I'm not saying nothing has happened. The inquiry will bring out facts," he explained.
Trafic Police at 11:56 am on Wednesday announced that there would not be a victory parade but only a felicitation function at the stadium.
However, the RCB team's management at 3.14 pm announced that they would hold a victory parade at 5 pm.
"Victory Parade will be followed by celebrations at the Chinnaswamy stadium. We request all fans to follow guidelines set by police and other authorities so that everyone can enjoy the roadshow peacefully. Free passes (limited entry) available on shop.royalchallengers.com," it said in a post on 'X'.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state slammed the ruling Congress government in the state over the incident.
On Tuesday, the RCB defeated the Punjab Kings (PBKS) by six runs to clinch its maiden IPL trophy.
