Abandoned footwear, scattered bags, and leftover food lay across the narrow staircase connecting platforms 14 and 16 at New Delhi Railway Station. The area still echoed with the cries of pilgrims – some on their way to the Mahakumbh, others returning, shaken by the chaos that claimed 18 lives and left 15 critically injured.According to Delhi Police, confusion over the name of their destination, ‘Prayagraj,’ triggered the stampede. The Prayagraj Special was arriving at Platform 16, while the Prayagraj Express was already at Platform 14.When the name was announced over the speakers, the crowd rushed towards the trains, eager to reach their holy destination but unsure where to go.Rohit, a resident of Rohtak, was travelling to the Kumbh with his mother and sister when the chaos erupted.”As our train was announced, people suddenly started running towards another platform, creating chaos. In the chaos, my mother’s hand slipped from mine, and she fell onto the tracks, fracturing her arm,” he recounted to PTI.Despite calling for an ambulance immediately, he said help took almost an hour to arrive.The overwhelming crowd left many stranded and helpless.”There were far more people than I have ever seen at this station. In front of me, six or seven women were taken away on stretchers,” recalled Dharmendra Singh, another passenger travelling to Prayagraj.Porter Krishna Kumar Jogi, who witnessed the tragedy, described the horrifying scene.”I witnessed the entire incident. We carried dead bodies from platform numbers 14 and 15 to the ambulance,” he said. The crowd had swelled beyond control, and many suffocated to death, he added.Anirudh, a daily wage labourer from Prayagraj living in Noida, had tried to book a reserved ticket home but had to settle for a general ticket due to the Mahakumbh rush. A frequent traveller to Prayagraj, he described the situation as uncontrollable.”No one was walking; people were just pushing each other to move ahead. I saw women falling to the ground and others trampling over them. People didn’t even realise they were walking over human beings who were alive,” he told PTI.
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