Stampede at Bandra Railway Station in Mumbai, 9 injured

New Delhi, Oct 27 (IANS) At least nine people were injured in a stampede at Bandra railway station in Mumbai early on Sunday when passengers tried to board a train heading toward Uttar Pradesh.

The condition of seven people is stable while two have suffered critical injuries.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said the stampede occurred due to the very heavy rush before Diwali. On platform number 1, where a crowd had gathered for train number 22921 (Bandra-Gorakhpur express train) at Bandra Terminus station a few passengers got injured in the stampede, the BMC said.

The injured passengers were rushed to the hospital on stretchers by Railway Police personnel and other passengers.

A video showed a Railway cop taking an injured passenger on his shoulder. Another video showed two men lying on the floor with blood stains on their clothes. A man was also seen sitting on a bench, with his shirt torn off, and looked visibly in pain.

The BMC in an update said the situation is under control at the railway station and the injured have been taken to Bhabha Hospital.

As per the information received earlier from the Medical Officer of the Bandra Bhaba Hospital, nine patients were reported soon after the incident.

The injured have been identified as Shabhir Abdul Rehman (40), Parmeshwar Sukhdar Gupta (28), Ravindra Harihar Chuma (30), Ramsevak Ravindra Prasad Prajapati (29), Sanjay Tilakram Kangay (27), Divyanshu Yogendra Yadav (18), Mohammad Shareef Shaikh (25), Indrajith Sahani (19) and Noor Mohammad Shaikh (18).

Of these Indrajith Sahani and Noor Mohammad Shaikh were admitted in critical condition.

However, the Indian Railways ACP said that a total of ten people were injured out of which two have been discharged. The ACP said the incident happened due to the rescheduling of the train.

The Railway PRO said the people tried to board the moving train. There were 22 bogies in the train and all were general bogies. There was no reserve bogie, said the PRO. When the train came to the platform, a huge crowd rushed to board the general bogie resulting in the stampede.