BBC Hindi, Delhi
Sunday morning, New Delhi station in the capital of India was very much like what it always does; Animated, with its many platforms full of impatient and impatient passengers waiting to take their trains.
But Saturday evening, a murderous crushing – apparently caused by overcrowding – killed at least 18 people and left several injured.
According to officials, two trains had been delayed at the station, while a third – heading towards Prayagraj, where the massive Hindu religious festival, Kumbh Mela, was held – was waiting to leave while people were pushing against each other .
The crushing occurred after “a passenger slipped and fell on the stairs,” said a spokesperson for Indian railways.
Opposition leaders criticized the government, alleging that Indian railways have not made adequate arrangements to manage the crowd at the station.
An investigation was launched and the authorities announced compensation for the victims.
When asked by the BBC on safety and security at the station, Pankaj Gangwar, principal security commissioner of the Northern Railway, said “the investigation be finished first”.
Crusters like these are not unknown in India, where there is frequent overcrowding during religious events, festivals and public spaces. Last month, 30 people were killed and dozens injured in a crush in Kumbh Mela.
The crowds of the station were not unexpected either – the trains are by far the cheapest long distance mode of transport in India and it is common that the number of passengers far exceeds the capacity of the trains.
The eyewitnesses and the families of the victims told their test. Many of them were angry with the authorities and police officers of the station, who, according to them, did not act in time.
Some eyewitnesses said that crushing was not limited to one place, but took place on the air deck, stairs and platforms.
Bipin Jha was at the station to meet his wife Mamta, who arrived on a train. She died in the crushing.
“I met her on the platform and we walk on the bridge over the head when she was trapped in the crushing. She died before my eyes. I will live my life with the guilt of not Not save her, “he said.
“We were on the stairs, suddenly, we felt a push from behind. We fell, with many others, and we were trapped under the bodies. I was barely breathing,” said Seema, including the sister of The Pinky Devi law died on the stairs.
Usha Devi, who went to the eastern state of the Bihar for the marriage of his nephew, said that Chaos had broken out when she reached the platform.
“Many people have fallen. Everywhere, there were dispersed business, food and clothes. I was about to pass out. So many people collapsed. The crowd was so dense that we could not board our train. “
Abhinav GoelUmesh Giri’s wife Shilam Devi was one of the victims.
“The crowd has become uncontrollable,” he told the BBC Hindi while waiting in front of the morgue of Delhi’s Maulana Azad Medical College.
“I saw several bodies already lying there. People were colliding with each other, and others started to fall them,” said Giri, who was also injured.
He added that the help had taken time to arrive and that he pleaded with officers for help.
Senior police and railway officials on the scene did not respond to the request for comments from the BBC.
Most of the victims were taken to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash hospital in New Delhi, where police and paramilitary forces were deployed, and railway authorities had created an assistance service to help families. Journalists were not allowed to enter the hospital on Saturday.
Relatives of victims shared their sorrow with journalists waiting outside, while expressing anger at the hospital’s facilities.
“Several people have been piled up on a single bed,” said Shobha, Shilam Devi’s sister-in-law.
Others leaving the hospital also confirmed it. Hospital authorities did not respond to the BBC comments.
At Lady Hardinge Hospital, the bereaved family of Riya, 7, filled the documents so that they can receive their body.
“No child deserves to die like that,” said his uncle Vivek, wiping tears.
