Deadly Crowd Crush Mars Celebration for Indian Cricket Championship

At least 11 people were killed and dozens were injured on Wednesday in a crowd crush outside a stadium in the Indian city of Bengaluru as tens of thousands celebrated a Premier League cricket championship, officials said.

The crowd had gathered outside M. Chinnaswamy Stadium a day after the city’s popular cricket franchise, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, had won its first title in the cash-rich Indian Premier League’s 18-year history.

A hastily arranged victory parade had been canceled after officials determined that the risk of a stampede was too great. But a celebration inside the stadium proceeded, with the team bused in instead of arriving by parade, and people were trampled at the gates as they tried to push their way in.

Six bodies and 19 injured people were taken to Bowring Hospital in Bengaluru, the south Indian tech hub also known as Bangalore, said Manoj Kumar, its director. All but one of the dead were in their teens or 20s. Officials at a second hospital, Vydehi, told reporters that four bodies and 12 injured people had been taken there.

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