New Delhi railway station stampede: After hrs at hospital — hope, anxiety, anger

A stampede at New Delhi Railway Station left 18 dead and 15 injured, with families frantically searching for loved ones at LNJP Hospital.

Nearly ten ambulances, families trying to look for their missing kin, scores of police personnel, and fretful medical staff -- all rushing around the campus of the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narain (LNJP) Hospital -- was seen as the aftermath of the massive stampede at the New Delhi Railway Station as uncertainty around deaths and injuries shrouded hundreds of victims on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday.

Ambulance carrying victims of the stampede arrives at the LNJP Hospital on Saturday. (ANI)

As per the Delhi Police record, at least 18 people died and 15 more were left injured after the incident. After the stampede, as many as 28 people were rushed to the LNJP Hospital and entry gates were barricaded after all the patients were taken in. Heavy police and para-military deployment was immediately put up for safety and management purposes.

Soon after the patients were let in, families came rushing -- some even on foot -- to the hospital. Many were stopped by security guards who checked their names and identity cards.

Manoj Sah, a factory worker, panicked when two policemen did not let him enter the hospital when he went to check for three of his missing family members, including his 11-year-old daughter Suruchi Sah. He told the police that his daughter, father-in-law Vijay Sah and mother-in-law Krishna Sah were missing. His fears turned real when he was taken inside by a doctor and a policeman and through the identities of the three relatives, was told that all of them have died.

His wife, waiting outside the campus, was desperate to go inside the hospital. Other families were also making rounds around the administrative block, casualty ward and entry gates. Only a few members were allowed inside.

Kavita Sehgal, who came looking for her niece, Sangeeta Malik, 34, was also stopped at the entry gate. Her son, husband, and neighbours had accompanied her. She told HT that in 10 minutes of waiting outside the hospital, she was told by the police that Malik had died. “We are being asked to wait. I just want to see her,” she said.

For some families, it took two to three hours to find their loved ones. Poonam Rohilla, 34, a nurse, was among the deceased but her family could only make it to the hospital by around 1am as they kept searching for her at other hospitals. Her sons -- sitting on a platform outside the main building waiting for confirmation and entry access -- alleged that the police did not help them much.

Inside, doctors, other medical staff, and officials from the health department were seen rushing frantically, making lists of the victims, talking to families and guiding them, and sending bodies to the mortuary.

In the casualty ward, doctors kept rushing the patients based on their health condition and were making records of the nature of injuries, family details and deaths.

Meanwhile, senior police officers and political leaders including Delhi’s outgoing CM Atishi and Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Delhi chief Virendra Sachdeva visited the hospital to meet the victims and the families of the deceased.