With 23 people dead in the stampede at the Elphinstone railway station in Mumbai, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray today warned that “not a single brick will be allowed to be placed for the bullet train in Mumbai” until the infrastructure of local railways was made better.

“I shall not allow even a brick for the bullet train project to be laid. First resolve all the basic problems of Mumbai commuters. If (Narendra) Modi wants, let him construct it in Gujarat. If they use force, we shall also retaliate,” an agitated Mr Thackeray said.

Attacking the ruling BJP, he called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “liar” who changed all his statements before and after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. “We have never seen a PM who is such a big liar. He made big promises and then dismissed them as ‘election jumlas‘. How much can a person lie in this fashion?” asked Mr Thackeray, according to news agency IANS.

The MNS chief claimed that Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu was replaced by Piyush Goyal only to push through the Bullet Train project. “This Goyal is useless, Prabhu was good,” he said.

“Why do we need terrorists or enemies like Pakistan? It seems our own Railway is enough to kill people,” 49-year-old Mr Thackeray added.

He also claimed that stampedes will continue to occur in Mumbai till hordes of migrants keep pouring into the city. “There has been a collapse of infrastructure facilities due to the migrant influx from other regions,” he said.

Mr Thackeray claimed that his party had written to authorities for building a new bridge at the stampede spot but no action was taken on his suggestion. The Kakodkar committee had proposed an expenditure of Rs. 1 lakh crore to improve the railway infrastructure but nobody acted on it, he claimed.

The MNS chief also announced that he would personally lead a morcha to Churchgate on October 5 to oppose the bullet train plans and urged all Mumbaikars to participate in large numbers.

The stampede took place around 10.30 am yesterday on the tiny bridge between the Elphinstone Road and Parel stations, which are among Mumbai’s busiest. Witnesses say four trains rolled in at the same time and a large crowd poured into the bridge that was already bursting with people taking shelter from a sudden, heavy downpour. A few commuters slipped, and people fell on them.

There was no pre-festival illumination of the iconic Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus or CSMT as railway employees joined the city in mourning the Elphinstone Road station tragedy by not celebrating Dussehra festival.

Late last night Mumbaikars took out a candle march on the Elphinstone railway bridge and prayed for the departed souls.

“Yes, it is true that the railway officials, employees, workers are not celebrating Dussehra today in the wake of the tragic incident that took place yesterday.

“All our staff, officers are saddened and they have spontaneously taken a call not to celebrate Dussehra,” chief spokesperson of Western Railway Ravinder Bhakar said.

At least 22 people died and over 30 were injured in the stampede that took place on a narrow foot-over-bridge (FoB) that connects the Elphinstone Road on the Western Railway to Parel on the Central line.

Chief spokesperson of Central Railway Sunil Udasi said the Central Railway employees too are not celebrating the festival today.

He said, “It is a call taken by railway employees and officers on their own not to celebrate the festival owing to the tragic incident.”

Bodies of 17 of the 22 people killed in the stampede at Elphinstone Road railway station in Mumbai have been handed over to their relatives so far, hospital authorities said today.

At least 22 persons were killed and 39 injured in a rush hour stampede on a narrow foot-over-bridge (FOB) linking Elphinstone Road and Parel suburban stations during heavy rain last morning.

Out of the 39 injured, two are in a critical condition, with one of them being kept on a ventilator at the KEM hospital in Parel.

“Bodies of 17 victims have been handed over to their relatives so far,” senior medical officer at the hospital, Dr Praveen Bangar, told PTI.

The hospital administration is yet to decide on giving discharge to the injured patients as most of them are still under observation, he said.

“Most of the injuries are either blunt trauma or bone fractures. The patients are admitted to various wards accordingly. The supervisors of the respective wards will review the recovery of the patients and submit report to the higher authorities,” he said.

The discharge procedure will be initiated after these reports are submitted, the hospital medical officer added.

Police are examining CCTV footage and also the video clips shot by onlookers to find out what led to the deadly stampede on a railway footbridge at the Elphinstone Road station in Central Mumbai today morning.

“An Accidental Death Report (ADR) has been registered at the Dadar police station as the incident took place in the jurisdiction of city police,” assistant commissioner of police Sunil Deshmukh told PTI.

Police have got hold of CCTV footage of the bridge, he said. “We are also approaching some eye-witnesses to get information about the incident,” he added.
Some onlookers shot videos of the incident on mobile phones and police are seeking help from them for the investigation, he said.

A Railway Protection Force official had said that the footbridge got overcrowded and became slippery due to rain, which caused panic.

“Due to sudden rain, people waited at the station. When the rain stopped, there was chaos as people rushed out,” railways spokesperson Anil Saxena had said.

BJP ally Shiv Sena joined the opposition to launch a scathing attack on the railway ministry for the rush-hour stampede that killed 22 commuters in Mumbai today, saying the central government didn’t have money to spend on a bridge used by poor commuters but “gave Rs. 30,000 crores in one day” for the bullet trains.

Sena lawmaker Sanjay Raut said its leaders had been writing to the railway ministry to seek repairs. “How many times did our MP go to the railway ministry… You have money for bullet trains, but not for repairing the bridge,” he said.

There were more than the usual people on the bridge at the time, waiting for the rain to end. Then, four trains came at the same time.

Due to the rain, a few commuters slipped, which led to the stampede. There were also rumours that the British-era bridge – that commuters said shakes every time a train passes – is falling.

Expressing shock and anguish at the death of so many people, Congress president Sonia Gandhi called “a man-made” and avoidable disaster. “Such accidents could have been avoided had there been proper planning and concern for safety issues,” she said.

Responding to the bars, Minister of State for Railways, Manoj Sinha, said it was wrong to link the tragedy to the bullet train project. “Please don’t link this to bullet trains. No one should politicise this event,” he said.

The kin of people, who died in a stampede at a railway foot over bridge or FOBs in Mumbai this morning, will get a compensation of Rs. 10 lakh each, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said.

Making an announcement at the site of the incident, Mr Goyal said the Railway Ministry as well as the Maharashtra government would provide an ex gratia of Rs. 5 lakh each to the kin of those who died in the incident.

“The state government has announced an ex-gratia of Rs. 5 lakh for the next of kin of deceased, while a similar amount has been announced by the Railway Ministry as well,” Mr Goyal said.

He said that Rs. 1 lakh would be given to the grievously injured persons and Rs. 50,000 to those who suffered minor injuries in the incident.

He also announced a complete ‘safety and capacity’ audit of all the FOBs across the suburban train network.

Speaking at the KEM hospital in Mumbai, Mr Goyal said an inquiry report on the incident will come in 10 days.

The minister, who reached Mumbai this morning for the scheduled inauguration of 100 additional suburban services in the financial capital, cancelled all his previous engagements in view of the tragedy.

A city that will soon have a bullet train doesn’t even have a safe railway bridge, commented angry residents in Mumbai after a stampede left 22 dead and over 30 wounded this morning.

The bridge connecting the busy Elphinstone Road and Parel train stations is always overcrowded, and over the years, there have been multiple warnings of a disaster waiting to happen.

Four trains arrived around the same time, and a huge crowd tried to get out. The bridge was already crowded after sudden, heavy rain that had people scurrying for cover. Some say a loud bang after a short circuit led to panic. A witness said there were rumours of the old bridge collapsing. Within moments, many were crushed and injured.

“You have money for bullet trains, but not for repairing the bridge…You let the poor passengers die…and for moneyed passengers, you talk about bullet trains,” said the Sena’s Sanjay Raut, calling the stampede a public massacre.

Arvind Sawant, a Sena parliamentarian, had written to Suresh Prabhu last year requesting repair work on the bridge.

In his reply in February 2016, Mr Prabhu had assured that the bridge would be extended and widened. He had also cited “paucity of finances, operational constraints or other compelling circumstances” for the inability to respond to such requests.

Over a year later, no work has been done on the bridge. Mr Sawant said today: “This is not just negligence. It’s too soft a term to use. This is delinquency.”

Piyush Goyal, who took over the Railway Ministry earlier this month after a series of train accidents, said: “I have issued directions for safety and capacity audit of foot over bridges in Mumbai where there is congestion. Wherever there is a need for foot over bridges to be widened, we will do it immediately on high priority.”

Overcrowding has caused many deaths on Mumbai’s local train network, according to an Observer Research Foundation report. In the past six months, close to 1,600 people have been killed; most of them fell off trains and a few died while crossing railway tracks.

Minister of State for Railways, Manoj Sinha, said the incident does not raise any questions about the structural safety or design of the bridge.

A Mumbai commuter who survived the stampede that killed 22 this morning, describes how she kept herself calm amid “panic and chaos and an insane crowd” on a railway bridge at Elphinstone station after just a 20-minute rain. When she somehow managed to come out, she saw bodies.

Shruti Lokre was on the overbridge and saw the crowd suddenly increasing until she couldn’t breathe properly. “It was just a 20-minute rainfall that made people halt. It is a British-era construction that shakes every time a train passes. There was no exit for us, the crowd was carrying you,” she told NDTV on the phone.

In tweets, Ms Lokre said: “Before I realised, I was a part of that stampede. Saw bodies being taken out.”

Ms Lokre tweeted: “The only way to not give up on hope was to give hope to someone else. It’s gonna be alright, we will make it. Breathe, keep breathing, look that guy is helping us. Don’t worry, I am here. We are in it together. Just few more minutes. This!”

She also commented: “You don’t realise when the mob turns into a stampede. It happens in front of you, you become a part of it. Panic and chaos and insane crowd.”

Railways Minister Piyush Goyal has ordered an inquiry. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has announced Rs. 5 lakh compensation to the families of deceased and all the medical expenses of the injured will be borne by government.

At least 22 people have been killed and over 30 seriously injured in a stampede that broke out at a narrow foot overbridge near a local train station in Mumbai after heavy rain this morning. The incident took place around 10.30 am during rush hour near a ticket window between Parel and Elphinstone stations. Many events coincided to produce a tragedy that many say could have been avoided, had successive governments heeded warnings. Four trains arrived around the same time, and a huge crowd tried to get out. The bridge was already crowded after sudden, heavy rain that had people scurrying for cover. Some say a loud bang after a short circuit led to panic. A witness said there were rumours of the old bridge collapsing. Within moments, many were crushed and injured.

Twenty-two people including a child were killed and over 30 seriously wounded in a rush-hour stampede in Mumbai that broke out when thousands took a narrow railway bridge connecting two stations after heavy rain. Phone videos taken by witnesses show a crowd on the British-era bridge and people climbing over the railing and hanging onto it precariously. Moments later, bodies are piled up on the stairs, pressing against the railing.

The stampede took place around 10.30 am on the tiny bridge between the Elphinstone Road and Parel stations, which are among Mumbai’s busiest. Witnesses say four trains rolled in at the same time and a large crowd poured into the bridge that was already bursting with people taking shelter from a sudden, heavy downpour. A few commuters slipped, and people fell on them.

“People on the bridge were in a rush to get down, while those who had arrived on suburban trains were making their way up,” said Kishore Thakkar, a commuter.

“The crowd was increasing …We couldn’t breathe, we were falling on each other, there was panic. There was no exit. There was also a rumour that the bridge is falling, the bridge is breaking,” shared Shruti Lokre, who survived the horror.