A few hours after the death of at least 18 people in a stampede at New Delhi railway station, railway employees worked overnight to clean the terrible remains of the tragic incident.
On platforms 14 and 15, shoes, torn bags, scattered clothes and left outdated food – reminiscent of chaos that occurred a few hours ago.
By Sunday morning, workers were seen removing debris and collecting personal items to restore normal conditions at the busy station, but this tragedy has left wounds that cannot be easily erased.
A railway employee, who took several hours to remove the debris, described the scene as one of the “worst” scenes he had ever seen.
He said, “The goods were scattered everywhere – slippers without a pair, half ate food and even the school bag. People did not have time to pick up their belongings; they just fled to save their lives. Were.”
The horrific view of individual goods scattered on platforms gives a painful reminiscent of lost life and disrupted life. The stampede took place around 9:55 pm on Saturday night when thousands of passengers, in which most of the Mahakumbh pilgrims were, gathered at the station to catch the train going to Prayagraj.
The Prayagraj Express stood at platform 14, while the Freedom Fighter Express and Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express were running late, causing huge crowds of people on platforms 12, 13 and 14.
The situation worsened when the platform was announced to change at the last moment. The passengers ran towards the confused and nervous platform 16, where an escalator became the cause of the jam.
The security personnel tried to intervene, but the crowd was so high that it could not be controlled. Some passengers tried to climb the railing to escape, while some people were crushed under the feet.
18 people died in the stampede – 14 women and five children, including two 10 years of age – more than a dozen people were injured. As soon as the dawn, the railway employees started cleaning work. In the video shared by news agency PTI, employees are seen removing debris from the roof of the platform and cleaning the track.
The bags and clothes were gathered in the pile, while the officials were searching for the remaining personal belongings.
In Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital, the bereaved families gathered to identify their loved ones. When a father looking for his missing son saw a well-known blue bag in the items recovered from the station, he wept.
He cried crying, “He was only 12 years old. He had to board the train with me.”
The government has announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the families of the deceased. Expressing his condolences on X, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “I am distressed by a stampede at New Delhi railway station. My condolences are with all those who have lost their loved ones. I pray that the injured people are healthy soon. Go.”
Railway officials have admitted that congestion was a major reason for this disaster. Every hour 1,500 general tickets were being sold, which increased the number of passengers so much that it became impossible to control them.
Now the security measures have been tightened and the authorities have started the investigation as to what the mistake was made. Despite the resumption of normal rail operations, the echo of Saturday night accident still remains. A mother is still searching for her missing daughter, railway workers are picking up the scattered luggage – a night marks of chaos and damage that can never be completely erased.
