Bengaluru Stampede: IPL champion RCB's victory celebration turned into mourning; people kept falling on the ground, screams kept echoing

After the stampede at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, there was screaming and crying everywhere. Fans who had come to catch a glimpse of their players were cursing the poor arrangements made by the organizers. No one could understand how the atmosphere of celebration turned into mourning in no time.

Cricket lovers from all over Karnataka started gathering outside the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Tuesday night to celebrate the realization of Royal Challengers Bangalore's dream of becoming the IPL champion. It was told that after the felicitation ceremony, there would be a parade of players in an open bus, but it was not decided till the last moment. The organizers did not decide about the parade till the last minute. Passes were mandatory for entry, while thousands of people had reached without passes. Some people were deployed to check the passes, but there was no arrangement to control the crowd. There was no one to help the crowd gathered there.

Eyewitness Inayat who arrived from Lingarajpuram told that when he reached Gate No. 3, there was no place to even keep a mustard seed there. People were standing in queues to go inside without passes. Then the gate opened slightly and the crowd standing outside tried to enter.

The gate opened after pushing.

An eyewitness said that as soon as three girls pushed the door to go inside, it opened. The crowd pushed them down from behind and started entering inside crushing them. Many people kept falling one after the other and the outside of the stadium echoed with their screams.

'I lost my granddaughter'

14-year-old Devyamshi from Kannur had come to celebrate RCB's victory with her mother, younger sister, and other family members. After the stampede, her body was kept in Bowring Hospital. Her distraught grandmother outside the hospital expressed her pain and said that there were a lot of people there, they were trying to get inside by climbing over each other, nothing happened to the pushing crowd but I lost my granddaughter.

Someone said Virat will come from here...people started running

A voice came from somewhere in the crowd gathered at Gate No. 1 that Virat Kohli would come from here only. The crowd suddenly turned and started running towards the gate. Due to the gate being closed ahead, people started stumbling and falling on each other. Most of them were youth and women.