Indian officials said the accident happened amid a surge of passengers waiting for trains to attend a major Hindu religious festival.
Published On 16 Feb 2025
Ten women and three children were among at least 18 people killed in a crowd crush at a train station in India’s capital New Delhi, as thousands of Hindu pilgrims waited to board trains to attend the annual Mahakumbh Mela religious festival.
The incident unfolded on Saturday night at about 8pm local time (14: 30 GMT) on two platforms at the New Delhi Railway Station as huge crowds waited to board trains to Prayagraj city, where the festival is being held, some 624km (387 miles) southeast of the capital.
Delhi’s Chief Minister Atishi, who only uses one name, initially told reporters that 15 people had died, while the Press Trust of India later updated the death toll to 18 people.
India’s Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said four trains had been deployed to “evacuate” a sudden and unprecedented surge of travellers at the station and an investigation has been ordered to find out what went wrong.
High-level inquiry ordered https://t.co/Egaifp5Onx
— Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) February 15, 2025
Video footage shared on social media by local news organisations showed people jostling as they tried to force their way onto packed train carriages.
“People were running across platforms and there was a chaotic situation that led to people falling on each other,” a man who witnessed the events told India’s ANI news agency.
The Times of I