At least 11 people were killed in a stampede yesterday 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 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.”A media 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.
