Deadly stampede at India cricket celebrations leaves 11 dead

BENGALURU, India: Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team´s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state´s chief minister said.

Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League cricket final on Tuesday night.

But the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending”.

Karnataka state Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead and 47 injured in the crush.

In one Bengaluru hospital, a stream of injured came for treatment.

“I was standing near the entrance, there was a huge crowd and they stamped on me”, one lady told AFP, being taken in a wheelchair, who did not give her name. “I was not able to breathe. I fell unconscious.”

Siddaramaiah told reporters said that “no one expected such a huge crowd.” But he added that the entire police force of the city had been deployed.

“The stadium has a capacity of only 35,000 people, but 200,000-300,000 people came,” the minister said.

He said a victory street parade by the winning team was called off as authorities had anticipated an uncontrollable crowd.

“The pain of this tragedy has even erased the joy of victory,” said Siddaramaiah, who has ordered an inquiry in the deaths. “I don´t want to defend the incident, the tragedy... our government is not going to play politics on this,” he added.