At least were killed and dozens left injured in a stampede outside Bengaluru’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on the evening of Wednesday, as a massive crowd gathered to celebrate Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s first-ever Indian Premier League title.
What started as a historic moment for the city and the club quickly spiralled into panic when an estimated 200,000 fans surged toward the stadium gates, which hadn’t even been opened.
The crush led to the deaths of 11 individuals, including four teenagers, and left dozens more injured.
With little crowd control in place and far more people than anticipated, those at the front were overwhelmed in the chaos.
Emergency services struggled to reach the victims due to the dense crowd, and some fatalities were confirmed upon arrival at local hospitals.
“The crowd was very uncontrollable,” said Karnataka’s deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar. “No one expected such a huge turnout.”
Officials said over 200,000 fans had attended despite the stadium’s capacity being only 35,000.
In response to the incident, the planned victory parade was cancelled over safety concerns. Authorities have launched an investigation into the event’s planning and crowd management failures.
RCB had landed earlier that day at the old HAL airport and were scheduled to travel in a procession to the stadium for a grand reception.
Instead, tragedy struck just as the team was en route, with fans piling into narrow entry points and metro platforms becoming dangerously overcrowded.
“This was meant to be a moment of joy for the people of Bengaluru. Now it’s a day of mourning,” said an official, who described the incident as “deeply shocking”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also described the crush as “heartrending”, offering condolences to the families of the victims.
