Stampede at railroad station kills 2, injures 17 in India

NEW DELHI – At least two people were killed and another 17 injured in a stampede as people crowded an overpass bridge at a railroad station in eastern India on Tuesday, a state official said.

The crush occurred with a large number of people travelling during a Hindu festive season and rushing to catch trains at the station in Kolkata, the West Bengal state capital.

Mamta Banerje, the top elected official of West Bengal state, in a tweet confirmed the incident, which happened four days after a train killed 60 people on railroad tracks at a religious festival in the northern Indian city of Amritsar.

State minister Arup Roy said some of the 17 injured were in a serious condition and being treated in a government hospital.

Deadly stampedes are fairly common during Indian religious festivals, where large crowds gather in small areas with few safety or crowd control measures.