5 Killed in New Delhi Train Station Stampede
A stampede Saturday at the main railroad station in India’s capital killed at least five people and injured seven, the railways minister said.
The five were crushed as thousands of passengers jostled for space on two platforms.
“The victims were mostly poor migrant workers who wanted to travel to their home state to celebrate the Chat festival,” Railways Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav said.
Chat is a Hindu festival popular with the people of Bihar, an impoverished state from which hundreds of thousands of people migrate each year to more prosperous parts of India.
Authorities deployed 100 special trains to handle heavy traffic during the festival season.
Yadav said the Chat festival coincided with the Hindu festival of Diwali, celebrated Friday, and the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr here Monday to mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
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