Stampede at Bengaluru stadium, several dead and many injured
An evening meant to mark Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) historic IPL title win ended in tragedy on Wednesday, as a stampede near Chinnaswamy Stadium claimed 11 lives and injured more than 50, including a 6-year-old girl.
The celebrations quickly spiralled out of control when thousands of fans thronged the area to catch a glimpse of the team and the trophy after RCB’s first-ever IPL championship victory over Punjab Kings in Ahmedabad.
The lack of crowd control and infrastructure planning left many in distress. “My left leg got stuck in a fallen barricade amid the pushing,” said Prerna (name changed), one among the injured. “I fell, and people walked over me. I saw four people die in front of me. There wasn’t even space for two-wheelers, let alone ambulances. Bowring’s casualty ward is flooded with RCB fans.”
The chaos extended beyond the stadium to Bengaluru’s roads and metro lines. Mathew (name changed) recounted, “We took the metro to Cubbon Park, but it halted at KSR for 10 minutes before announcing it wouldn’t stop at Cubbon or Vidhana Soudha. Everyone rushed out at Ambedkar station. KR Circle was heavily congested with fans, and when the RCB bus passed by, a stampede broke out. People were falling, piling up. We had to climb Cubbon Park’s compound wall to escape.”
CM orders enquiry
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah visited Bowring and Vaidehi hospitals late in the evening to meet the injured, and express condolences to the families of the victims.
Speaking to reporters, he said, “The cricket association organised the celebration, and we deployed police for security, sending all available personnel from Bengaluru. The stampede occurred at Chinnaswamy Stadium, where the gates are small and were broken as people tried to enter. The stadium’s capacity is 35,000, but nearly 2–3 lakh people showed up. I’ve ordered a magisterial enquiry, and those found responsible will be punished. I don’t want to defend the incident — the government will not politicise this. We deeply regret the tragedy.”
He announced a compensation of ₹10 lakh for each of the deceased, and said that the government will provide free treatment to the injured.
Former CM Basavaraj Bommai criticised the State government for negligence. “The administration rushed to organise two programs without any preparation, and both events were open to far more people than the venues could accommodate. This reflects the state government’s complete negligence and irresponsibility. The authorities clearly underestimated the crowd size. There was no coordination between the police and organisers.” Bommai said the State government is solely responsible for the incident and called for a full investigation, adding that those responsible must be punished.