Mumbai In Shock, Authorities Mum After The Stampede That Killed 22 People At Elphinstone

In yet another unfortunate Friday for Mumbai, a stampede has left 22 people dead at the Elphinstone station¡¯s foot over bridge. The bridge, that is already in a rickety condition injured almost 30 people in the gruelling incident.

It¡¯s hard to imagine that for those 22, it seemed like a normal day of going to work, but instead, an incident like this turned out to be the last morning of their lives. The incident that happened at 10.30 am on the railway station, had people commuting at the peak hour to their offices.

The Elphinstone railway bridge connects both Central and Western railway lines and exits towards the west in a bridge that is barely six feet wide and has tens of thousands walking on it every day. The rickety condition of the bridge was deemed as one of the causes of this. According to witnesses, the cause of the stampede was nothing but a slippery step on the bridge.

An eyewitness who wished not to be named was travelling to Dadar and saw the incident happening. ¡°I got off the train along with few other commuters and we rushed for help. But there was too much of crowd and chaos for anyone to enter in there and help. The authorities came in much later by the time we had taken the injured and bodies outside,¡± the witness said.

Police evacuating the area around the bridge

Another eyewitness, Shyamkumar Dantani was travelling with his wife and daughter had just gotten off the bridge when the stampede began.

¡°I asked my wife to take my daughter far from here. When I saw the stampede, few other residents of the chawls around came to help me evacuate the bridge and help everyone get out. It is all because one person slipped on the step as it was raining, and then one by one before we knew it there were 40 people slipping, falling, and stepping on each other,¡± Dantani told Indiatimes.

Shyamkumar Dantani

The bridge, narrow as it is, had people beginning to panic and jump off the railings. Some got stuck along the rails and lost their lives, while some managed to jump to the waterlogged ground. Remnants of their footwear and belongings were found in the empty space below the bridge along with the trash that people had been throwing in. Witnesses also said that they saw people jumping onto the railway tracks and empty space they found around the bridge, not regarding their lives while jumping from a height.

People were evacuated through the ladder

The police officers suspect that one person may have screamed due to slipping causing extreme panic among citizens. Another reason touted by the officers is that there were people standing on the platform to seek shelter from the rain, while four other trains arrived at the same time, causing a crowd that the tiny bridge could not handle. It was brought to our attention that the authorities have been approached several times to either renovate the bridge or build a stronger one.

Raju Kanojia, witness

Raju Kanojia, a resident nearby came to the rescue once he heard the chaos. He and other residents and commuters were visibly angry as they said that no politician or bureaucratic authority will come to their aid.

¡°By the time the police came and started their work, we had called the ambulances already. We sent a lot of the deceased and injured to KEM Hospital nearby,¡± Kanojia said. His statement could be believed as the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) arrived approximately two hours late at the site after the police had already had things under control. The people placed a ladder beside the bridge to help those stuck inside to climb down safely.

Footwear and carry-ons of the victims can be seen in the gap underneath the FOB

MP Kirit Somaiya visited the place a couple of hours later and said that he has been commuting in trains but something like this has never happened. The Mayor of Mumbai Vishwanath Mahadeshwar visited the site, but refused to address the media and left in a hush-hush manner clearly avoiding answering any questions that the media personnel present or the citizens were asking.

¡°I will be questioning the authorities responsible for this, and help the victims in every way,¡± he said. Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal was to visit the victims in the hospital where they were admitted.