Mumbai's Elphinstone stampede: At least 22 dead, 30 injured

Mumbai (Maharashtra) : At least 22 people died and more than 30 were seriously injured on Friday in a stampede at Mumbai's Elphinstone railway station.

The injured have been admitted to KEM Hospital and other nearby hospitals.

An NDRF team has also reached the accident site.

S. Jaykumar, Additional Commissioner of Police (Central Region), Mumbai informed that overcrowding at the station lead to stampede.

He further said, "Twenty-two bodies have been recovered so far, and 30 people are injured."

The stampede reportedly occurred at around 9.30 a.m. on foot over-bridge linking Elphinstone Road and Parel suburban railway stations.

Niket Kaushik, GRP Commissioner, informed that the exact reasons for the accident are still to be inquired into.

Western Railway PRO Anil Saxena, however, said that a chaos was created as a pedestrian slipped after a heavy rainfall on the foot over-bridge and added that a probe order has been issued by the Railway Ministry to look into the cause of the incident.

"A large number of people had gathered on the foot over-bridge because of heavy rain. When the rain stopped, people started stepping out, and a pedestrian is believed to have slipped, which resulted in a chaos. There is no valid information as such about the situation and an investigation is underway. The Railway Ministry has given the order for a thorough inspection to figure out the cause of this stampede," Saxena told media here.

Anil Kumar Gupta, General Manager, Western Railways, informed the media that there will be no change in train timings and they will be running on their scheduled times.

Accident Relief Medical Equipment Train was rushed to the accident spot and immediate medical assistance was provided to the injured.

Senior railway officers were also sent to the site.

Elphinstone station is usually crowded during peak hours and the festive season in the country added to the intensity of crowd here.