Stampede at Chinnaswamy Stadium: Stories of Tragedy, Survival, and Unanswered Questions

 When 21-year-old Venu set out for Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday, he was chasing a dream — to see his cricketing hero Virat Kohli in person and witness the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) celebrate their long-awaited Indian Premier League (IPL) title win. What awaited him, however, was not celebration, but catastrophe.

Venu, the son of a daily-wage labourer and a Bachelor of Commerce student at KR Puram Government College, became one of the severely injured survivors in the stampede that claimed 11 lives and left at least 47 injured. The bone near his ankle was shattered when a metal barricade fell on his leg amidst the chaos.

“People were running over the barricade while my lower body was trapped beneath it. Even my cries were drowned out by the screaming crowd,” he recounted from his bed at Bowring Hospital. “At one point, I couldn’t breathe. I thought I’d die. When I tried to pull away, I was shoved, and the barricade crashed down on me. The pain was unbearable until a policeman dragged me to safety.”

Lying in the same ward as Venu was Rahul, an insurance company employee and ardent Virat Kohli supporter. Rahul, along with his fiancée and her sister, had also reached the stadium with dreams of seeing the RCB captain lift the cup. Though they had booked tickets online, technical issues prevented them from downloading them, prompting a decision to try entering directly through the stadium.

“We thought we could scan the code at the gate. But the crowd was too much. Suddenly, I was on the ground, unable to move, with sharp pain in my neck,” Rahul recalled.

His fiancée had pleaded with him to leave after seeing the dangerous crowd. “I even tempted him with a plate of chicken biryani to make him change his mind,” she said. But his passion prevailed. Moments later, she found herself crushed under a mass of bodies, her abdomen trampled, and she briefly lost consciousness.

“I thought I wouldn’t survive. I was dragged toward the divider, and someone splashed water on me to revive me,” she said, still shaken. Her sister suffered a head injury and was awaiting CT scan results.

Rahul, now nursing a neck injury, was filled with regret. “I’m a big fan, but this wasn’t worth it,” he said.

Nearby, B.Tech student Haneef Mohammed, originally from Bijapur, lay with a head injury. A lifelong cricket fan, Haneef had hoped to catch a glimpse of his idols without a ticket. But the situation turned violent before he could get close.

“There was chaos everywhere. Police began lathi-charging. One of them struck me on the head,” he said, still visibly in shock.

Another heart-wrenching scene unfolded as a distraught woman went hospital to hospital, searching for her missing husband who had attended the parade. “His phone is switched off. I’ve tried every hospital,” she said, her voice filled with panic. A compassionate bike taxi driver who had brought her volunteered to accompany her to multiple hospitals.

Outside Bowring Hospital, a group of inconsolable students wept for their friend Akshata, a 25-year-old who had come to witness the RCB victory parade and instead lost her life in the crush.

The tragedy has triggered a wave of public outrage and grief. The Karnataka government confirmed 11 fatalities and 47 injuries. A magisterial inquiry has been ordered, but the precise cause of the stampede remains unclear.

Preliminary accounts suggest two critical failures. First, a lack of coordination between multiple agencies — including law enforcement, traffic police, the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), and Metro authorities — led to poor crowd control. Second, officials vastly underestimated the crowd size and dynamics at an event hosted in a venue that holds just 32,000 spectators.

Despite his injuries, Venu is determined not to let the tragedy derail his future. “I’m preparing for the NTPC exam next week. Even in pain, I will write the exam and make my father proud,” he said.

The voices of those who survived this horrific incident echo one message: a call for accountability, better planning, and respect for public safety — so that the joy of sport never again turns into a night of mourning.