A Kolkata Durga Puja stampede at a Chorbagan Sarbojanin pandal reportedly killed 18 people on Friday evening, turning one of Bengal’s busiest festival nights into a major crowd-safety disaster. The incident took place at around 7.40pm under the jurisdiction of Girish Park police station, according to a report by Bartaman Patrika.
The report said the dead included visitors from different parts of Kolkata. Five people had reportedly travelled from Gauranganagar in New Town, of whom two died. A mother who had come from Kumartuli with her 25-year-old son, Sonu Pal, also died after being crushed in the crowd. Pal told the newspaper that he had fallen during the incident and later found his mother lying nearby.
According to Pal’s account, rain had trapped visitors inside the pandal while people waiting outside tried to enter for shelter. The resulting surge led to pushing and crowd congestion. The report said the entry and exit routes were narrow, adding to the difficulty of moving people through the pandal safely.
Puja organiser Pritam Sarkar attributed the crowd build-up partly to the handling of visitor movement during the rain. He told the newspaper that organisers had asked police to release visitors in smaller groups, but that more people were allowed through at one point. Sarkar said the concentration of a large number of visitors in one place contributed to the disaster. These claims were not independently verified in the supplied report.
After news of the deaths spread, rescue efforts began and injured visitors were taken to Kolkata Medical College. The hospital became a gathering point for families searching for missing relatives and attempting to identify those taken there. The report described scenes of panic, grief and confusion outside the emergency department as relatives sought information about those caught in the crush.
Several visitors reportedly complained that announcements about crowd control were inadequate and that the pandal’s access routes were too narrow. Some also said they could not locate organisers or police officers when the crowd began to surge. The supplied report did not provide a detailed statement from the Kolkata Police or a confirmed account of the number of injured people.
The incident has raised immediate questions about how high-footfall festival venues manage entry, exit, weather-related surges and emergency access. Durga Puja pandals routinely draw large crowds into temporary structures and surrounding streets, making the coordination of police deployment, organiser volunteers, pedestrian movement and medical response central to public safety. Further official findings will be needed to establish the precise sequence of events and responsibility for the crowd crush.
