Scattered shoes, heavy silence haunt street outside Bengaluru's Chinnaswamy Stadium after deadly stampede

Tens of shoes were strewn across the street, and an eerie calm prevailed in the area. Chaos had unwound following Royal Challengers Bengaluru's (RCB) first-ever win in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025.

A day after the pandemonium, a video shared by the news agency ANI showed mundane life resuming in the area, with traces of chaos left on the street. It showed shoes and slippers scattered on the road outside the Chinnaswamy Stadium, where a stampede took place on 4 June.

The deadly stampede

RCB finally ended an 18-year wait for the coveted IPL trophy, defeating Punjab Kings by six wickets in the finals of IPL 2025, held on Tuesday, 3 June, at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

The celebration over the historic victory spiralled into a tragedy near the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on 4 June.

The incident occurred when thousands of fans attempted to enter the stadium, where a special felicitation ceremony was organised by the Karnataka State Cricket Academy (KSCA) to honour the RCB players for their maiden IPL title.

The stampede led to the death of 11 people. Around 33 people were injured following the stampede near the Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Wednesday, "The Karnataka state cricket association had organised a programme for the victory celebration (at the stadium), there was also a programme from the government (at Vidhana Soudha)."

“At the Chinnaswamy Stadium, a big tragedy happened. Due to the stampede, 11 people have died and 33 have suffered injuries,” Siddaramaiah was quoted by news agency PTI as saying.

During the commotion, some people fell on the ground, some got injured while trying to scale huge gates to gain entry into the stadium.

3 reasons that led to the Bengaluru stampede

Confusion over the victory parade, free passes, overcrowding and limited seats at the Chinnaswamy Stadium are said to be some of the major reasons that led to the stampede that left at least 11 people dead.

Police sources told PTI that the initial chaos later turned into a stampede as several cricket enthusiasts, who did not have entry tickets to the stadium, tried to swarm into the premises along with those who had valid tickets.

The Bengaluru Traffic Police announced at 11:56 am on Wednesday that there would not be a victory parade but only a felicitation function at the stadium. However, the RCB team's management said at 3.14 pm that they would hold a victory parade at 5 pm.

This left fans confused about whether a parade would be conducted or not.

The team management had then requested all fans to follow the guidelines set by the police and other authorities so that everyone could enjoy the roadshow peacefully. It added, “Free passes (limited entry) available on shop.royalchallengers.com.”

Police sources said that even though they had made it clear that no victory parade would be held and that only those with tickets would be allowed to enter the stadium, fans gathered outside the stadium in large numbers, and many among them also jumped the gates to gain entry.

“While those with valid tickets were allowed to enter the stadium for celebrations, many tried to squeeze in with those who had free passes and tickets. In that bid to get entry, some of them also started pushing each other,” a police officer said.

Siddaramaiah said the stadium has a capacity for 35,000 people, but 2-3 lakh people had come. "Nobody had expected so much of a crowd to come," he said. According to the police, around 50,000 people were within a 1-kilometre radius and the number just kept increasing.