Chorbagan residents blame sudden rain, narrow space, lack of personnel to control crowd for stampede

KOLKATA: Locals of Chorbagan area of Kolkata on Sunday said sudden rainfall, narrow space, heavy rush of visitors and lack of adequate volunteers and police for crowd management contributed to the stampede at the Durga Puja pandal that claimed 19 lives on the previous day.

They claimed that heavy rain caused people inside the pandal to wait for the weather to improve, while visitors waiting outside grew restless and tried to rush inside the already full marquee.

Pramod Gupta, who resides near the Chorbagan puja pandal on Radha Madhav Lane, said the queue of visitors to the marquee had reached Mahatma Gandhi Road about 700 metres away.

"Everything was fine till the rain started," he said.

Gupta said there was a sudden rush after the downpour started and people were trying to scamper out of the pandal as many more entered from outside.

"Standing in front of my house, I could hear screams as people rushed out," he said.

"I and my daughters helped four girls and asked them to stay in our house till the situation eased," he said.

The resident said several people lay on the lane outside the exit gate of the pandal as others tried to help them.

He said the injured were thereafter taken to hospital by ambulance.

Another woman resident of the locality said the narrow lane, which became narrower with the setting up of temporary shops, caused impediments in the swift rescue of the injured.

"Ambulances could not reach the spot, and the injured had to be carried out to the main thoroughfare some distance away," she said.

Another local man alleged that there were very few police personnel and volunteers inside the pandal, thus making crowd management difficult.

"We started the rescue work by breaking the bamboo structures and barricades of the pandal," he said.