19 killed in stampede at Kolkata's Chorbagan Durga Puja pandal

At least 19 people were killed and 25 injured on Saturday evening when a crowd surged at the Chorbagan Sarbojanin Durga Puja pandal in north Kolkata, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said early on Sunday.

The pandal stands off Chittaranjan Avenue in one of the city’s busiest puja neighbourhoods. A police officer said the crowd waiting outside surged forward as rain began, and some people fell onto the road. Adhikari said an announcement by the community puja organisers had set off the rush. A portion of the exit gate structure was reported to have given way under the pressure of the crowd.

All 17 people counted dead in the first hours were brought dead to Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, where the injured were also taken. One of the injured was in critical condition late on Saturday.

Through the night

Organisers halted entry and switched off the pandal’s lights as Kolkata Police, state disaster management teams and fire services reached the spot. “It is not clear as of now how this incident happened,” Bikash Das of the organising committee said soon afterwards.

Adhikari went to the medical college with Chief Secretary Manoj Agarwal, and Health Minister Saradwat Mukherjee and senior officials followed. By about 1:45 am the Chief Minister put the toll at 19. He said the state government had cancelled all events connected with the festival, and urged opposition parties not to politicise the deaths, saying the families of the dead had expressed faith in the government.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had arrived in Kolkata on Saturday evening to visit puja pandals. He called off his programmes for Sunday. “The Union Home Minister and I will visit the injured persons at the hospital on Sunday morning,” Adhikari said.

Condolences and aid

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced ₹2 lakh from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund for the next of kin of each person killed and ₹50,000 for each of the injured. “The stampede in Kolkata is extremely distressing,” he wrote on X. “May the injured recover at the earliest.” He said the local administration was providing all possible help.

Shah wrote that he had “just received the extremely distressing news of multiple casualties” and had spoken to the Chief Minister about medical care for the injured.

Former chief minister Mamata Banerjee said she was “deeply shocked and saddened to learn about the stampede at the Chorbagan puja pandal.”

The state government has not yet announced its own compensation. Police have begun a probe into how the crowd was handled, and several of the city’s biggest pujas were asked to shut their gates for the night.