Poor crowd management and scorching heat left at least four people dead and nearly 100 others were admitted to hospitals at the Indian Air Force (IAF) airshow in the Marina seafront in Chennai on Sunday.
The spectacular event, to mark the 92nd anniversary of the IAF, turned into a disastrous one with the crowd rushing to reach home immediately after the show was over.
Police said the deceased were identified as Srinivasan (48), Karthikeyan (34), John Babu (56) and Dinesh (35). With more than 13 lakh people flocking the beach, chaos erupted as the arrangements were very poor and inadequate. The victims and the affected had complained of nausea and vomiting and fainted.
Unconfirmed reports have put the toll at more than ten. Temperature had soared to 36 degree centigrade and the Metro and suburban train services as well as city bus services proved to be inadequate.
Encouraged to attend the event, people have come in droves but the arrangements right from traffic management to basic amenities were very poor. Since it is held after a gap of 21 years, there was wide publicity by the Tamil Nadu Government and the IAF.
In order to get into the Limca Book of records, the organisers were interested in getting a huge crowd and people have turned in large numbers even from neighbouring districts.
Unable to bear the scorching heat, the spectators were seen rushing to get back once the event which started at 11 am and was over around 1 pm.
“The crowd started assembling on the beach from 7 am onward and when the show was over, everyone started to leave the venue at once resulting in chaos and confusion,” an official said.
Many participants took to social media to register their grievances about poor crowd management and about ambulances getting struck in the crowd.
Some recalled that even the more than a week-long massive spontaneous protest to press for removing restrictions on Jallikattu – traditional bull taming festival – in 2017 at the Marina was more organised. It had attracted lakhs of people and thousands staying put on the beach, but passed off without any chaos or confusion.