Kochi: “I couldn’t first fathom what was happening. I was at the forefront. I heard shouts from behind and turned around and people started falling on me. Then there was a chaotic symphony of panicked screams all around.” Adarsh Raghu, a final-year student of the CUSAT Engineering IT Department, was shell-shocked when he recollected the horrifying moments.
Adarsh is relieved he got back to life despite being trapped and trampled at the bottom. However, the cries of students who had fallen with him are still reverberating in his ears. His words falter as he opens up about the incident.
"Nikita Gandhi's programme was scheduled to begin at 7 pm. The steps leading to the open-air stage are steep. They started allowing people in by 6.15 pm. Since it was a celebrity singer's show, students from other colleges and the public came to attend. However, the priority for admission was given to students from the Engineering Department, who are the organizers. So, we started entering first. A few minutes later, I heard a rude shout from behind me, 'Hey, let the people in.' I didn't hear any sound of rain. Suddenly, people started falling on top of the students who were entering the front.
“The students slipped and fell on either side of the steps and in front as well. I fell into the lower portion on the left. The students kept falling up again on those lying on the floor. Both my legs got stuck in between. But I was lucky to have my head out. But others fell on the faces and chests of many of those who had fallen nearby; they began to gasp for breath. I was terrified when I saw them choked with their eyes wide open. In the meantime, some people came to the rescue. Nothing much happened to me except that I bruised my leg as I pulled myself out of the mess," Adarsh said.
Four including three students died and nearly 50 were injured in the stampede during a Tech Fest at CUSAT on Saturday night. The mishap occurred in an open-air auditorium minutes before the music concert led by popular playback singer Nikhita Gandhi. The programme was organised as part of the tech fest of the engineering students.
