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Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah confirmed 11 deaths and 33 injuries in the Bengaluru stampede during RCB’s IPL victory celebration. The crowd far exceeded expectations, prompting questions over planning.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday evening confirmed that 11 people lost their lives and 33 others were injured in the tragic stampede near Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy Stadium during the victory celebrations of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).
Addressing a press conference in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and Home Minister G Parameshwara, Siddaramaiah termed the incident a “major tragedy” and said the scale of the turnout far exceeded expectations.
The Chief Minister said, “I don't want to defend this incident. Our government will not do politics on this. I have ordered a magisterial inquiry and given 15 days' time.”
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“None of us expected such a tragedy,” the Chief Minister said. “The cricket association also did not anticipate this. The stadium could only accommodate around 35,000 people, but 2 to 3 lakh people gathered outside. It was completely unexpected.”
The stampede occurred during RCB’s celebratory parade after their historic IPL 2025 win, their first in 18 years. What was meant to be a joyous occasion turned into chaos as crowd control measures failed to hold back the surging masses outside the stadium.
Siddaramaiah announced a compensation of ₹10 lakh for the families of the deceased and said the state government will bear the full cost of treatment for the injured. He clarified that while over 1 lakh people had gathered at Vidhana Soudha, there were no untoward incidents reported from there. The tragedy occurred only near the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
“There were no incidents near Vidhana Soudha, but at the stadium, we faced a tragic stampede. We had only anticipated around 35,000 people, which is the stadium’s capacity, but the crowd swelled to over two lakh,” he said.
The state government is now under pressure to explain how such a large-scale gathering went unmanaged and why preparations were not scaled up considering the massive popularity of RCB’s historic win.
