At least 11 people were killed in a stampede on Wednesday as a tightly packed crowd celebrated the victory of their home cricket team in the Indian city of Bengaluru, the 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 (OPL) cricket final on Tuesday night. But the euphoria of the vast crowds 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.
"No one expected such a huge crowd," he told reporters, but added that the entire police force of the city available had been deployed. "The stadium has a capacity of only 35,000 people, but 200,000-300,000 people came."
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. "This tragedy should not have happened, we are with the victims."
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said "hundreds of thousands of people" had flocked onto the streets and that police had been "finding it very difficult." An AFP photographer saw vast crowds as a sea of people crammed the streets and police waved sticks.
Broadcasters showed police rushing away from crowds carrying young children in their arms, who had seemingly fainted.
"I apologise to the people of Karnataka and Bengaluru," Shivakumar said. "We wanted to take a procession, but the crowd was very uncontrollable... the crowd was so much."
One unattended young man was sitting in an ambulance struggling to breathe.
Mallikarjun Kharge, a senior Congress party leader, said the "loss of precious lives and the injuries" was "profoundly distressing."
"The joy of victory should never come at the cost of lives," he said in a statement.
Organisers pressed ahead with the ceremony, with the team's social media account posting a video of cheering crowds as the bus full of the players — including batting legend Virat Kohli — waved back.
"This welcome is what pure love looks like," the club said in a post on X, which it later deleted. But IPL chairman Arun Dhumal, speaking to NDTV, said organisers in the stadium had not been told about the stampede until later.
"At the time of the celebrations inside the stadium officials there did not know what had happened... I would like to send my heartfelt condolences," Dhumal said. Shivakumar said cricket organisers had "shortened the programme."
The tech city of Bengaluru had erupted in midnight celebrations after their team RCB, who scored 190-9, restricted Punjab to 184-7.
India's IPL mega-tournament wrapped up on Tuesday night watched by 91,000 fans packed into the stadium in Ahmedabad — and many millions more on television. Bengaluru fans celebrated wildly after their hero Kohli and RCB clinched victory for the first time in the 18 years of the IPL, their three previous finals having all ended in defeat. Deadly crowd incidents are a frequent occurrence at Indian mass events such as religious festivals due to poor crowd management and safety lapses.
A stampede at India's Kumbh Mela religious fair in January this year killed 30 people and injured several others. In July last year, 121 people were killed in northern Uttar Pradesh state during a Hindu religious gathering.
Agence France-Presse