Eyewitnesses recall Saturday night horror post stampede

New Delhi: People’s belongings scattered everywhere, a crowd unlike anything seen before with scores pushing and scrambling for space amid cries for help -- eyewitnesses have recalled the horror as the death toll in the overnight stampede at the New Delhi Railway Station climbed to 18 on Sunday.

According to official sources, a wrong announcement about change of platforms may have created a confusion that led to the stampede, something that some eyewitnesses also claimed.

As soon as the announcement was made, people surged forward by pushing each other. Those who fell were trampled in the rush, Ravi Kumar, a vendor running a shop at the railway station for the past 12 years, told news agency.

The crowd was unlike anything seen before, he said.

Ved Prakash, a resident of Paharganj, planned to travel to Prayagraj with his wife but decided to return home after witnessing the huge swell in crowd.

“Even inside the train, there was no space to stand. I stepped out and chose to go back,” he said. The family member of one of the deceased on Sunday reached the LNJP Hospital to collect the body of Poonam Devi, who was heading home to Bihar on Saturday night.

“There was an overwhelming crowd at the station, and her train was supposed to arrive at platform number 12. However, after an announcement was made, people started rushing, and those who fell were crushed,” the relative said.

Among the victims was a woman travelling with her family to Chhapra in Bihar. Her son, struggling to hold back his tears, recounted the devastating loss.

“We were travelling home in a large group and my mother lost her life in the chaos. People were pushing each other, and she got caught in the rush,” he said.

One of the passengers, Dharmendra Singh, said, “I was going to Prayagraj but many trains were running late or were cancelled. The station was overcrowded. There were far more people than I have ever seen at this station. In front of me, six or seven women were taken away on stretchers.”

Recalling the horrors of Saturday night, a daily wage labourer from Prayagraj, Anirudh said, “No one was walking; people were just pushing each other to move ahead. I saw women falling to the ground and others trampling over them. People didn’t even realise they were walking over human beings who were alive.”

The station was already crowded when he reached there but there was still space to sit until 9 pm, Anirudh said. However, as soon as an announcement was made – he was unsure whether it was for a train to Prayagraj or another destination – people suddenly started running.

“I saw women falling to the ground right in front of me. There was chaos, with people crying for help,” he said. A frequent traveller to Prayagraj, Anirudh described the situation as uncontrollable, with people screaming that someone was trapped underneath the crowd.

Rohit, a resident of Rohtak who was travelling to the Maha Kumbh with his mother, struggled to hold onto her hand amid the commotion, as she slipped and fell on the tracks.