A Kolkata Durga Puja stampede at a public pandal in Chorbagan killed 18 people on Friday evening, according to a report by Bartaman Patrika, after rain-driven crowd movement overwhelmed the entry area and left families searching for missing relatives at Kolkata Medical College.
The incident took place at the Chorbagan Sarbojanin Durga Puja pandal under Girish Park police station at around 7.40 pm. The report said visitors were caught in severe overcrowding as people waiting outside attempted to enter the pandal during rain. The resulting crush led to multiple deaths and injuries.
Among those affected was a family from Gouranganagar in New Town. Five people from the area had visited the pandal, and two were reported dead. The report also described the death of the mother of Sonu Pal, 25, who had travelled from Kumartuli with her son. Pal said he fell during the crush and later found that his mother had died.
According to Pal’s account, rain had trapped visitors inside the pandal while people outside tried to enter. The movement of the crowd reportedly became uncontrolled as visitors pushed into the same space, triggering the stampede.
Puja organiser Pritam Sarkar attributed the crowding partly to police crowd-release arrangements. He said organisers had asked the police to allow visitors to enter in smaller groups, but that the flow was increased during the rain. Sarkar said a large number of people were allowed into the same area at once, creating pressure that the pandal could not absorb.
The report also carried complaints from visitors that the entry and exit routes were narrow and that announcements about crowd control were inadequate. Some visitors said they could not find organisers during the emergency and did not see police personnel responding immediately. These accounts point to questions about the separation of entry and exit flows, the capacity of the temporary structure and the coordination between organisers and police during sudden weather-related crowd movement.
After news of the deaths spread, rescue operations began and injured people were taken to Kolkata Medical College. The hospital became a central point for relatives trying to locate missing family members and identify the dead. The report described scenes of distress outside the emergency department, with families searching for relatives who had not returned from the pandal.
The incident has also raised questions about how temporary festival venues manage peak visitor loads during Kolkata’s Durga Puja season. Pandal access depends on a combination of temporary structures, narrow approach routes, police-controlled visitor releases and organiser-led announcements. When rain changes the movement of people waiting outside and those already inside, weaknesses in any part of that system can increase pressure at entry points.
The report did not provide details of any official inquiry, the names of all those killed or the number of injured people. It also did not include a formal statement from the Kolkata Police or the civic administration on the crowd-control arrangements at the venue. Further official information is expected to clarify the sequence of events, the emergency response and the next steps following the deaths.
