Indian officials said the accident occurred in the middle of a wave of passengers while waiting for the trains to attend a large Hindu religious festival.
Ten women and three children were part of at least 15 people killed in a boost in a station at India station in New Delhi, while thousands of Hindu pilgrims were waiting to climb trains to attend the Mahakumbh Mela annual religious festival.
The incident took place on Saturday evening around 8 p.m. local time (2:30 p.m. GMT) on two platforms at New Delhi station while huge crowds were waiting to get on trains for Prayagraj City, where the festival is Unroll, some 624 km (387 miles)) south-east of the capital.
Delhi Minister of Delhi, Atishi, who uses only one name, told journalists that 15 people died, while the local media NDTV reported that the number of deaths was 18 people.
The Indian Minister of Railways Ashwini Vahnaw said that four trains had been deployed to “evacuate” a sudden and unprecedented increase in the train station travelers and an investigation was ordered to know what was wrong.
– Ashwini Vahnaw (@ashwinavishnaw) February 15, 2025
The video sequences shared on social networks by local press organizations have shown that people were jostling themselves as they were trying to make their way on crowded train cars.
“People were running on platforms and there was a chaotic situation that led people to come across each other,” said a man who witnessed events at the India news agency .
The Times of India said that witnesses reported an “crowd increase” which was launched by the delay of two trains, which led to an unexpected number of passengers awaiting platforms. When people rushed to get on a train arriving, “the situation has become uncontrollable, some passengers vanish in the middle of the sudden push,” said the media.
“It sparked rumors of a stampede, leading to additional panic,” he said.
The Mahakumbh is the greatest milestone in the Hindu religious calendar, and those responsible said that around 500 million faithful had already visited the festival since its start in January.
Crowd crushing occurs regularly in the main religious festivals of India.
At least 30 people were killed in a mahakumbh crushing last month when tens of millions of Hindu gathered to bathe in the waters of the sacred river. The centerpiece of the six -week festival is the ritual bath at the point where the Ganges and Yamuna merge with the legendary River Saraswati.
At least 36 people were also crushed to death in 2013, the last time the festival took place in Prayagraj, and more than 400 died after being trampled or drowned during a single day of the festival in 1954.
The India’s rail system, which is the fourth largest train network in the world, has also experienced serious accidents in the past two years, including a collision in 2023 which killed at least 288 people.
