Bengaluru has a shadow of desperation hanging over it. The dark clouds hovering over the city reflect the IPL stampede outside the Chinnaswamy Stadium, where 11 people tragically perished in the IPL stampede as hundreds of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) fans gathered. The fans gathered to see the team after their historical IPL title triumph. Twenty-seven more people are getting care for major wounds as well.
Sources suggest several elements contributed to the mayhem. Far from police predictions, the huge crowd gathering near the Chinnaswamy Stadium and its surrounds was the main problem. The original estimate of IPL stampede was roughly 250,000 people, but the actual attendance for the celebratory events was. It includes Vidhana Soudha, where the team was to be acknowledged by the state government, nearly tripled.
An official said people did not adhere to the advisories on the repeated public announcements that asked them to disperse. They were determined to reach the venue at any cost.
By the afternoon, after announcements about the team’s praise within the stadium, the crowd started to swell. The estimates of the police, though, were drastically incorrect, therefore underlining the pressing need for crowd control. “A big calamity might have been averted even if they had lathi charged those without passes earlier,” noted a retired senior police officer.
According to Pratibha, an RCB fan there near the stadium, the IPL stampede’s need to get within the stadium increased as the cries for the team got more intense. There was so much shoving. Somehow, we pulled away and sped toward the closest lane near HAL. People were tumbling like cards because of the pushing, she observed.
The expected victory parade between Vidhana Soudha and Chinnaswamy Stadium, with players on a bus carrying the trophy, is the second major component under investigation. Reports indicate the Bengaluru police advised the administration against continuing with the march, citing worries about possible traffic jams and great crowding.
