22 dead in stampede on footbridge in Mumbai suburban railway station

he jostling crowd on the footbridge minutes before the deadly stampede. Picture: PTI

PTI, Mumbai, Sept. 29 : A rush hour stampede on a narrow footbridge linking two railway stations here killed 22 people and injured over 30 on Friday morning, with crowds on the platforms watching helplessly as the victims stumbled, fell or were crushed.

The tragedy took place around 10.40am when commuters trying to seek shelter from a cloudburst piled on to a footbridge linking the Elphinstone Road and Parel stations on the city’s suburban railway network.

“Two of the injured are in serious condition,” said Deepak Sawant, Maharashtra’s health minister, who provided the initial estimate of casualties.

According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's disaster control room, 22 people were brought dead to the KEM Hospital in Parel. The injured were taken to various hospitals.

The footbridge is used by thousands of people commuting to corporate and media offices in an area reclaimed from defunct textile mills.

People were trapped on the stairs and the decades-old footbridge, crammed so tight in the narrow space that several suffocated to death.

As those on the platform below watched helplessly, many people attempted to escape by climbing over the railing. Many were seen trying desperately to stay upright in the onslaught of tumbling humanity.

“It was raining heavily and people on the bridge were in a rush to get down, while those who had alighted from suburban trains were making their way up,” said Kishor Thakkar, who has been travelling on the route for years.

“We had given a letter to the railway administration six months ago with a request to do something to improve the shoddy state of affairs here,” he said.

The pile of footwear left behind was a mute testimony to the tragedy that unfolded.

Railway minister Piyush Goyal said the family of each victim would get a compensation of Rs 10 lakh—half from the Indian Railways and half from the state government.

The cause of the stampede is being investigated but police suspect a loud bang caused by an electrical short-circuit panicked commuters already crowding the slippery footbridge.

“The overbridge of Elphinstone station was overcrowded and due to rain it got slippery too. This caused panic and resulted in the stampede,” said Atul Shrivastav, inspector general of the Railway Protection Force.

Eight women and a young boy were amongst those killed, the chief of the BMC’s disaster management cell, Mahesh Narvekar, said.

The railway minister, who had reached Mumbai on Friday morning for a programme in which he was to launch more suburban services, announced a high-level inquiry headed by Western Railway's chief safety officer. He cancelled his other engagements.

A civic officer said 19 of the 22 people killed in a stampede have been identified.

”We carried out a detailed verification of documents and have identified 19 victims so far,” I.A. Kundan, Additional Municipal Commissioner, told PTI.

A help desk has been set up at KEM Hospital to facilitate the identity of those killed.

(This report was updated at 6.00pm.)