BENGALURU, Jun 4: Celebrations descended into chaos and finally tragedy as 11 people lost their lives and more than 30 were left injured outside the Chinnaswamy stadium while trying to join a party inside the venue to honour Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s IPL triumph here on Wednesday.
However, the felicitation of the players went ahead nonetheless as the stadium was packed to the rafters despite the chaos.
Much like last night when the team’s win in Ahmedabad triggered a street party in the Garden City, Wednesday too had thousands, which eventually became lakhs, converging at the Chinnaswamy stadium, leaving the police outnumbered and struggling to take control of the situation.
The men in uniform tried to use mild force to disperse the crowd or to at least bring some order but that did little to discourage people, many of whom could be seen pressed against the stadium’s entrance gate, desperate to get in.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced that 11 had died and 33 were injured “due to stampede near Chinnaswamy Stadium.”
“More than 2-3 lakh people came near Chinnaswamy Stadium, no one expected this crowd,” Siddaramaiah said.
“Most of deceased in RCB celebrations are youth. Government will provide Rs 10 lakh compensation to kin of deceased,” he added, while declaring that there will be a magisterial inquiry into the incident.
The injured are being treated at the nearby Vydehi hospital and Bowering hospital.
“Crowd was uncontrollable, police was finding it difficult, so we had to stop procession,” Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said while speaking about the tragedy because of which a planned victory parade could not take place.
The BCCI said the turn of events was shocking and the organisers should have been better-prepared.
“It’s most unfortunate, organisers should have planned RCB’s IPL-winning celebrations better,” BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia said. “When one organises a victory celebration of this magnitude, proper precautions and security measures need to be taken,” he added.
