Stampede at Mumbai Railway Station Kills at Least 22
29, 2017
NEW DELHI — Commuters stampeded on a narrow, crowded railway station overpass in India’s financial capital, Mumbai,
during the morning rush hour on Friday, leaving at least 22 suffocated or crushed to death and 36 injured.
Officials have not yet given a cause for the tragedy,
but India’s railway minister, Piyush Goyal, announced a review of the safety and capacity of all such spots in Mumbai’s suburban rail network, saying it would be a top priority to widen and repair overpasses where needed.
One of the worst in recent years was near the Ratangarh Hindu temple in the city
of Datia in northern central India on Oct. 13, 2013, which left 89 people dead.
The disaster was a stunning reminder of the poor safety conditions on India’s railways
and the frequency of crowd-related accidents, even in rapidly modernizing metropolises like Mumbai.
Shruti Lokre, who was caught in the crush but survived, told the news channel NDTV
that heavy rain had slowed people down even as a crowd of commuters built up behind them.
