Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 4, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
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A crowd surge outside Bengaluru's cricket stadium during an IPL celebration led to 11 deaths and 47 injuries, highlighting safety concerns.
By Sethuraman N R and Haripriya Suresh
BENGALURU, India (Reuters) - At least 11 people died on Wednesday in a crowd surge outside a cricket stadium in the Indian city of Bengaluru where fans were celebrating Royal Challengers Bengaluru's first Indian Premier League title win, authorities said.
Thousands of people, some waving the home team's red flag, lined streets around the Chinnaswamy Stadium as the team arrived in a bus in the evening, TV channels showed, with some climbing trees and the stadium wall for a better view.
As the celebration proceeded, some people outside without passes tried to push through gates and there was further trouble between the perimeter and main arena, police said.
Images from the scene showed people climbing over others.
At least 11 people were killed and 47 were injured in the incident, Karnataka state chief minister Siddaramaiah, who uses only one name, told reporters.
"At a time of celebration, this unfortunate event should not have happened. We are saddened by this. The fans that showed up were beyond our expectations," he said.
One policeman carried an injured spectator to an ambulance, while people gathered around another lying seemingly unconscious on the ground. Visuals also showed some people receiving CPR.
UNCONTROLLABLE CROWD
Police started caning people at one gate, leading to more chaos, said Mithun Singh, a software engineer among the crowd.
Naseer Ahmed, political secretary for the Karnataka chief minister, told broadcaster NDTV the crowd became uncontrollable and authorities were unable to make proper arrangements.
The team had given away free passes for the event through its website but also warned that numbers would be limited.
Bengaluru metro stopped services near the stadium, where the ceremony continued despite the turmoil outside.
India is familiar with crowd accidents, mainly at religious events. At least 30 people died at the Maha Kumbh Hindu festival in January as tens of millions gathered to dip in sacred waters.
Bengaluru were celebrating beating Punjab Kings in the T20 tournament's final match in the 18th edition of the IPL, the world's richest cricket league.
(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta, Hritam Mukherjee, Chandini Monnappa, Rohith Nair, Akash Sriram and Manvi Pant, writing by Sakshi Dayal; Editing by YP Rajesh and Andrew Cawthorne)
At least 11 people died and 47 were injured in the incident, according to Karnataka state chief minister Siddaramaiah.
The chaos occurred when some people without passes attempted to push through the gates, leading to a surge and further trouble between the perimeter and main arena.
Police started caning people at one gate, which contributed to the chaos, as reported by witnesses.
Fans were celebrating the Royal Challengers Bengaluru's victory over Punjab Kings in the final match of the IPL T20 tournament.
The team had given away free passes for the event through its website but warned that numbers would be limited.
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