Four people have been confirmed dead at the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) air show conducted at Chennai’s Marina Beach on October 6, allegedly due to poor crowd management. At least 96 others have been hospitalised. The deceased have been identified as Srinivasan (48), Karthikeyan (34) , John Babu (56), and Dinesh. The event was organised by IAF to commemorate its 92nd anniversary.
More than 13 lakh people had flocked to the venue by train, metro, cars, and buses to watch the show, entering the event in the Limca Book of Records for attracting the largest gathering for an air show. However, this moment of pride turned disastrous when people attempted to leave the area after the event, and the traffic authorities were rendered unable to control the crowd.
According to DT Next, some people, in a desperate attempt, managed to get past the congestion by entering into the Madras University campus, on Kamaraj Salai, that runs along a significant stretch of Marina beach.
Officials said they had expected at least 10 lakh people to assemble at Chennai’s Marina beach for the air show and that arrangements were made accordingly. “People started assembling at the beach from 7 am and when the show got over at around 1 pm. The entire crowd left the venue at the same time leading to chaos and confusion,” the official said.
Chennai is witnessing an air show after a gap of 21 years. The event was widely publicised by the Air Force and Tamil Nadu government authorities. The arrangements and amenities that were put in place for the public, however, turned out to be inadequate. Many are reported to have fainted from dehydration, as they were unable to access drinking water or leave the location.
Many spectators complained about lack of arrangements and posted videos of ambulances getting stuck in the crowd and lack of help from emergency services.
Visitors were also stranded at various points along the beach even as temperatures soared to 36 degrees during the day. Chaos also reigned at several train stations such as the Government Estate metro station and the Chintadripet MRTS station.
Another police officer who was overseeing the security arrangements told TNM that the Chennai Metro had increased the frequency of trains after the metro stations started witnessing huge crowds. “The frequency of the metro train was at 7 minutes and it was brought down to 3.30 minutes to accommodate the crowd. But everyone wanted to leave at the same time and both metro and MRTS railway stations witnessed unprecedented crowds,” the officer added.