Bengaluru: A tragic stampede outside Bengaluru’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium claimed the lives of at least 11 people and left over 20 injured on Wednesday as thousands of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) fans gathered to celebrate the team’s maiden IPL title.

According to initial reports, chaos erupted when the stadium crew kept the outer gates shut despite mounting crowds outside. The gates were reportedly opened at the last moment, triggering a surge as over 600 fans rushed into the outer precincts. The resulting panic led to a stampede in which six men and four women lost their lives.

The crowd had begun assembling since early morning, hoping to catch a glimpse of the winning team arriving with the IPL trophy. Roads around the stadium and key areas in the Central Business District were blocked as fans converged from across the city, many arriving by metro and on foot.

The RCB team was earlier felicitated by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM D.K. Shivakumar at Vidhana Soudha. The team was scheduled to make an appearance at the stadium later in the day. According to state BJP president B Y Vijayendra, this was a failure of the government, “we had told the government not to hold such a large event without proper planning. But the government was adamant on holding it on Wednesday just a day after the RCB team won the championship."

According to a report, there were only 100 policemen in an area where over 50,000 people had gathered, and police force was outnumbered drastically. The road from Raj Bhavan, Ambedkar Veedhi, Queens Road, MG Road, GPO, Cubbon Park KR circle, The approach to Anil Kumble circle from Kasturba road, Kamraj road, St Marks road, cubbon road were completely blocked with RCB fans. According to an estimation, over 2 lakh- 3 lakh people had tried to reach the Chinnaswamy stadium.Those injured in the stampede were rushed to Bowring Hospital, including several minors and elderly fans. Authorities are probing the incident, and questions are being raised about crowd management and security preparedness.

Addressing a press conference Chief minister S Siddramiah has announced a compensation of Rs. 10 each to all the persons who have died and free treatment to people who have injured at Bowring hospital as well as the private faciliteis. He said thankfully nobody among the injured are critical. “We are shocked that this incident has happened at a time when the city must be celebrating, but the crowd participation was too much in number while the Chinnaswamy stadium had space limited to 35,000 people. I have also ordered an inquiry headed by a magistrate level official into the incident. We will bring those people responsible for this tragedy to the book.

The CM explaining the conditions that prevailed at the Chinnaswamy stadium said “The gates were smaller and old and the facility could not handle 2-3 lakh people surging at it was totally unexpected. I have ordered the Bengaluru Urban Deputy commissioner to give a report to him followed by the magisterial enquiry in next fifteen days”

The CM squarely blamed the Karnataka State Cricket Association for wrongly assessing the gravity of the situation. “The KSCA functionaries had requested to hold the event today (Wednesday) for their own reasons, even KSCA might not have foreseen such a crowd surge” The CM said. “This was not a government event but we obliged the KSCA’s request. We had acted only as a facilitator with security and other law support” he added.