22 killed and 32 hurt in rush hour crush on Mumbai railway bridge
Police investigate how stampede on crowded pedestrian crossing started
A stampede broke out on a crowded pedestrian bridge connecting two railway stations in Mumbai during the Friday morning rush, killing at least 22 people and injuring 32 others, Indian officials said.
Police were yesterday investigating what caused the stampede on the bridge, which led some commuters to leap over the railings. Others were crushed or fell underfoot and were trampled.
“There were too many people on the bridge, and the people were in hurry and wanted to move out,” said Brijesh Upadhyay, one of the many caught in the crowd.
“There was nobody helping, it was very suffocating, and we just wanted to get out of there and fell on each other.”
One rescuer told Indian broadcaster NDTV that the stampede trapped dozens in the narrow passage, forcing rescuers to break the railing to pull people out.
Mumbai police official Gansham Patel said some falling concrete had hit part of the bridge railing, leading people to surge forward out of panic at the thought that the bridge was collapsing.
Commuters also often complain about hawkers selling their wares on the narrow overpass, which connects two commuter railway stations Elphinstone and Parel.
Heavy rains meant the bridge was even more crowded than usual, as some sought shelter from the downpour under the canopy covering the bridge, said politician Shaina Nana Chudasama of the governing Bhartiya Janata Party.
Hospitals were treating 32 injured people, including 19 women and 13 men.
As Mumbai police appealed to citizens to donate blood to help the injured, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences to the fami“local lies of those killed. “Prayers with those who are injured,” Mr Modi tweeted.
Kishore Thakkar, another witness, said the bridge became overcrowded as people stopped, waiting for the rain to ease.
“But then came a heavy push by people, causing some people to fall down and get crushed by the surge of passengers.”
He complained that government rescuers did not respond quickly to alerts sent by phone.
people had pulled out most of the victims by the time the police and government rescuers arrived,” Thakkar told TV news channel ABP.
Tabrez Mukadam, a relative of a day worker who died in the stampede, said such accidents happened too often in India and that those responsible were not being punished.
“What about the families left behind and compensation for them?” he said.
Mumbai is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India with an estimated urban population of 18.4 million.
Separately in the southern city of Bangalore, two people were killed in another stampede by hundreds of people jostling to obtain coupons for free food offered by a local philanthropist.
The philanthropist has been detained for questioning.
Deadly stampedes are fairly common in densely populated India, where many cities are unequipped to deal with large crowds gathering in small areas, with few safety or crowd control measures.
“Local people had pulled out most of the victims by the time the police and government rescuers arrived”
KISHORE THAKKAR