Royal Challengers Bangalore captured the IPL trophy for the first time in 18 years on Tuesday night. But who knew the celebration of victory would turn into mourning. On the second day of the victory, a stampede occurred during the celebrations organized in Bangalore, killing at least 11 people and injured more than 30. Confusion about Vijay Parade, free pass, excessive crowd and limited seats at Chinnaswamy Stadium have given some major reasons for stampede.
Police sources said the initial chaos, which later turned into a stampede, began when many cricket lovers who did not have admission tickets in the stadium, tried to enter the premises with legitimate tickets.
During the chaos, some people fell to the ground while trying to climb the huge gates to enter the stadium, and some were injured.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that 11 people were killed and 33 injured in a stampede near the stadium. The dead were mostly young men, including men and women, many of whom were students.
He said that the stadium has a capacity of 35,000 people, but 2-3 lakh people had come. He said, “The match was held in the previous evening and the event was organized by the Cricket Association on Wednesday, so no one hoped that so many people would come. It was expected that the ability of the stadium or a little more people could gather.”
Explaining what caused chaos and stampede, the Chief Minister said, “There are small gates. People entered the gate. They also broke the gate, so there was a stampede. No one expected that there would be such a crowd. At first glance, it seems so.
At 11:56 am on Wednesday, the Bengaluru Traffic Police announced that there will be no victory parade in the stadium, but only the honor ceremony.
However, the management of the RCB team announced at 3.14 pm that they would organize the Vijay Parade at 5 pm.
A post on ‘X’ stated, “After the Vijay Parade, the Chinnaswamy Stadium will be celebrated. We request all the fans to follow the guidelines set by the police and other officials so that all people can enjoy the road show peacefully. Free pass (limited entry) are available on Shop.Royalchallengers.com.”
This created a confusion among the fans as to whether the parade would be taken out or not.
Police sources said that although they had made it clear that no victory parade would be taken out and only ticket holders would be allowed to enter the stadium, a large number of fans gathered outside the stadium and many of them were also fought to get admission.
A police officer said, “People with legitimate tickets were allowed to enter the stadium to celebrate, but many people tried to enter with those who had free passes and tickets. Some of them started pushing each other in an attempt to get admission.”
According to the police, about 50,000 people were within a kilometer radius and the number was continuously increasing.
Siddaramaiah said that the crowd of people and fans was more than his expectation. More than 1 lakh people gathered in front of Vidhan Saudh and there was no untoward incident, but this tragedy took place in Chinnaswamy Stadium. He said, “Nobody had expected it, neither the Cricket Association nor the government.”
The police used mild force to control the huge crowd and in some scenes, the policemen were also seen running sticks to disperse the fans. Shortly thereafter, Bangalore Metro also announced that trains would not stop at Kabban Park and Dr. BR Ambedkar stations due to huge crowds.
