Crowds too big

15 dead in stampede at New Delhi railroad station

(Bild: kameraOne (Screenshot))

At least 18 people were killed in a stampede at New Delhi's main railway station in India on Saturday. Eleven others were injured, as the head of government of the Indian capital confirmed to reporters on Sunday morning.

15 victims were admitted to Lok Nayak Hospital in the Indian capital. NDTV reported three more deaths, citing another hospital.

Train station was heavily overcrowded
According to reports, the train station in the Indian capital was heavily overcrowded due to the large number of travelers on their way to the world's largest pilgrimage festival Maha Kumbh Mela. Ten women and three children were among the fatalities, according to local media reports.

(Bild: kameraOne (Screenshot))

Various Indian media outlets showed pictures and videos of the crowds jostling at the station after the incident, while police and relief teams scrambled to disperse the chaos.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several ministers also confirmed the incident and expressed their condolences: "I am shocked by the stampede at the New Delhi railroad station. My thoughts are with all those who have lost their loved ones," Modi wrote on X.

(Bild: kameraOne (Screenshot))

Investigation into the incident ordered
India's Home Minister Amit Shah wrote that he had spoken to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and taken stock of the situation. An investigation into the incident has now been ordered.

It was only at the end of January that at least 30 people died in a stampede during the pilgrimage festival in the city of Prayagraj in the north of India on the festival grounds on the banks of the Ganges in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

Mass panics at festivals again and again
At the heart of the six-week festival are ritual ablutions at the point where the Ganges and Yamuna rivers meet the Saraswati river, which only exists in mythology. Mass panics occur time and again during India's major religious festivals.