Deadly Crowd Crush Mars Celebration for Indian Cricket Championship

Asia Pacific|Deadly Crowd Crush Mars Celebration for Indian Cricket Championship

At least 11 people were killed and dozens were injured on Wednesday in a crowd crush outside a stadium in the Indian city of Bengaluru as tens of thousands celebrated a Premier League cricket championship, officials said.

The crowd had gathered outside M. Chinnaswamy Stadium a day after the city’s popular cricket franchise, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, had won its first title in the cash-rich Indian Premier League’s 18-year history.

A hastily arranged victory parade had been canceled after officials determined that the risk of a stampede was too great. But a celebration inside the stadium proceeded, with the team bused in instead of arriving by parade, and people were trampled at the gates as they tried to push their way in.

Six bodies and 19 injured people were taken to Bowring Hospital in Bengaluru, the south Indian tech hub also known as Bangalore, said Manoj Kumar, its director. All but one of the dead were in their teens or 20s. Officials at a second hospital, Vydehi, told reporters that four bodies and 12 injured people had been taken there.

Late on Wednesday, Siddaramaiah, the chief minister of the state of Karnataka, where Bengaluru is the capital, said that 11 people in all had died. The authorities said the toll could rise further.

“It was a lot of pushing near the gates, and it was really difficult for the police and stadium staff to control the crowd,” said Siddharth H.N., a graduate student who had arrived to take part in the celebration.

Opposition parties in Karnataka raised questions about the hasty arrangements for the festivities.

“The state government should take full responsibility for this tragedy,” B.Y. Vijayendra, the Karnataka chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which leads the national government but is in the opposition in the state, told reporters. “The state government never cared about prior preparations. They were more interested in publicity.”

Siddaramaiah, the chief minister of Karnataka, who represents the governing Congress party in the state, said the plan for a parade had been canceled after the crowd had become too large and unruly.

“This tragedy has overshadowed the joy of the victory,” he said on social media.

The deputy chief minister, D.K. Shivakumar, said that 5,000 police officers had been deployed to provide security for a parade, but that they could not use force against the “young, vibrant crowd” as it grew “uncontrollable.”

The Indian Premier League is one of the world’s richest sports leagues, and the Bengaluru team is perhaps its most popular. The loyal fan following is attributable in large measure to the longstanding presence of its biggest star, Virat Kohli, who has been its face since the league’s inception.

Late on Tuesday, the Bengaluru team finally seized its first championship, defeating the league’s Punjab franchise in front of a crowd of more than 90,000 people in the western city of Ahmedabad.