BENGALURU: Royal Challengers Bengaluru said Thursday they stood “united” with fans as the Indian Premier League champions announced financial aid to families of those crushed to death during their title celebrations.
Hundreds of thousands had packed the streets in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru on Wednesday to welcome home their hero Virat Kohli and his RCB team-mates after they beat Punjab Kings in a thrilling IPL final.
But the euphoria of the vast crowds ended in disaster when 11 fans died in a stampede near the city’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, where the players were parading the trophy.
Most of the dead were young fans aged between 14 and 29 who had gone out just to catch a glimpse of their heroes.
Dozens of abandoned shoes and flip-flops littered the site in the aftermath.
RCB offered financial aid of $11,655 to each family of those killed.
Indian media have widely reported the team earned $2.3 million in prize money alone for taking the title on Wednesday.
“Our fans will always remain at the heart of everything that we do,“ RCB said. “We remain united in grief.”
Kohli, who top-scored in the final, said he was “at a loss for words” after celebrations of a dream IPL crown turned to tragedy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the accident “absolutely heartrending”.
– ‘Stamped on me’ –
Police used mild force to disperse people outside the stadium, an eyewitness told AFP, but the crowd was “extremely difficult” to control.
Lakshminarayan, who lost his 14-year-old granddaughter in the crush, said his family carried the child in a motor rickshaw to hospital.
He said celebrations should have been delayed to prepare for the widely expected mass crowds.
“There was no need to conduct celebrations the very next day, they should have postponed it to a week and organised it a better way,“ he said.
“You should take all precautionary measures, they should have police protection and follow the queue system.”
One of the people injured described to AFP how a “huge crowd” had crushed her.
“They stamped on me,“ said the woman, who did not give her name, from a wheelchair.
“I was not able to breathe. I fell unconscious.”
– ‘Died in an RCB shirt’ –
Street food vendor Manoj Kumar mourned the death of his 18-year-old son.
“I wanted him to go to college,“ Kumar told the Indian Express newspaper.
“I brought him up with a lot of care. Now he is gone.”
A grieving mother outside a city mortuary said her 22-year-old engineering student son had also died.
“He was crazy about RCB,“ she was quoted as saying by the Indian Express.
“He died in an RCB shirt. They danced when RCB won and now he is gone. Can RCB give him back to us?”
Authorities had already called off RCB’s proposed open-top bus victory parade through the streets after anticipating vast crowds.
But organisers pressed ahead with the welcome ceremony and celebrations inside the stadium.
RCB’s social media account posted a video of cheering crowds lining the streets as the players waved back from their team bus on their way to the stadium.
The team said they cut short the celebrations “immediately upon being made aware of the situation”.
Karnataka state chief minister Siddaramaiah said that the stadium had a capacity of “only 35,000 people, but 200,000-300,000 people came”.
