Stampede at rail center in Mumbai kills at least 22
MUMBAI, India — 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 investigating what caused the stampede on the bridge, which led some commuters to leap over the railing. 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.
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 lawmaker Shaina Nana Chudasama of the governing Bhartiya Janata Party.
Kishore Thakkar, another witness, complained that government rescuers did not respond quickly to alerts sent by phone. “Local people had pulled out most of the victims by the time the police and government rescuers arrived,” Thakkar told TV news channel ABP.
Separately in the southern city of Banglaore, two people were killed in a stampede by hundreds jostling to obtain coupons for free food offered by a philanthropist, police said.