At least 11 people have died in a crush outside a cricket ground in Bengaluru, where fans were celebrating Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s first Indian Premier League (IPL) title win, authorities said.
Thousands of people, some waving the home team’s red flag, lined streets around the M Chinnaswamy Stadium as the team arrived in a bus in the evening, TV channels showed, with some climbing trees and the stadium wall for a better view.
The team had given away free passes for the event through its website but also warned that numbers would be limited.
As the celebration proceeded, some people outside without passes tried to push through gates and there was further trouble between the perimeter and main arena, police said.
At least 11 people were killed and 47 were injured in the incident, the Karnataka state chief minister, Siddaramaiah, who uses only one name, told reporters.
“No one expected such a huge crowd. The stadium has a capacity of only 35,000 people, but 200,000 to 300,000 people came,” he said.
“At a time of celebration, this unfortunate event should not have happened. We are saddened by this. The fans that showed up were beyond our expectations.”
One police officer carried an injured spectator to an ambulance, while people gathered around another lying seemingly unconscious on the ground.
Mithun Singh, a software engineer in the crowd, claimed that police started caning people at one gate, leading to more chaos.
Naseer Ahmed, a political secretary for the Karnataka chief minister, told the broadcaster NDTV the crowd became uncontrollable and authorities were unable to make proper arrangements.
Bengaluru were celebrating beating Punjab Kings on Tuesday in the T20 tournament’s final match in the 18th edition of the IPL, the world’s richest cricket league.
In January, at least 30 people were killed as tens of thousands of Hindus rushed to bathe in a sacred river during the Maha Kumbh Mela festival, the world’s largest religious gathering.
