Stampede at Indian station injures 22

Rumours of a collapsing overpass have sparked a stampede at a Mumbai train station that left 27 people seriously injured.

A stampede has broken out on a crowded pedestrian bridge connecting two railway stations in Mumbai during the Friday morning rush, killing at least 22 people and injuring 27.

When falling concrete hit the bridge railing, people in the crowd thought the bridge would collapse and surged to escape, Mumbai police official Gansham Patel said.

People had been crowding under the canopy covering the bridge to escape heavy rains, making the deadly tragedy worse, said lawmaker Shaina Nana Chudasama of the governing Bhartiya Janata Party.

Commuters also often complain about street-sellers hawking their wares on the narrow overpass.

The pedestrian bridge connected two local Mumbai railway stations - Elphinstone and Parel.

As Mumbai police appealed to citizens to donate blood to help the injured, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences to the families of those killed.

"Prayers with those who are injured," Modi tweeted.

Railways Minister Piyush Goyal said the incident was being investigated.

Separately in the southern city of Banglaore, two people were killed in another stampede by hundreds of people jostling to obtain coupons for free food offered by a local philanthropist, police said.

Deadly stampedes are fairly common in densely populated India, where many cities are unequipped to deal with large crowds gathering in small areas, with few safety or crowd control measures.

In October 2013, a stampede in Madhya Pradesh state in central India killed more than 110 people, mostly women and children.


Share
2 min read

Published

Source: AAP


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world
Stampede at Indian station injures 22 | SBS News