Most of the victims in the Kolkata Durga Puja stampede are women and children

People pay their respects to those who lost their lives in a tragic accident at Chor Bagan, Kolkata near a Durga pandal during the ongoing Durga Puja festival in Prayagraj on October 18, 2026. | Photo credit: ANI

Most of the victims in the Kolkata Durga Puja stampede were women and children. The list of 19 dead, shared by police on Sunday (October 18, 2026), includes 13 women, including two minors.

Pandal in Kolkata LIVE on 18th October 2026

Among the youngest victims of the tragedy were three boys – a seven-year-old from Bihar, a 13-year-old from Agarpara, North 24 Parganas and a 14-year-old from Purba Bardhaman.

Several young women also lost their lives in this tragedy, including two 17-year-olds and two 18-year-olds; four of the other women were in their 20s and 30s.

The oldest victims were 66-year-old Bikash Bhattacharya of Salkia, Howrah, and 59-year-old Dilip Ghosh of Baranagar in North 24 Parganas.

Among the 19 deceased, seven were from North 24 Parganas district, one from South 24 Parganas district and one from Nadia. Kolkata, Hooghly, Howrah and Purba Bardhaman district each accounted for two deaths. Two relatives from neighboring Bihar’s Muzaffarpur also lost their lives in the tragedy.

Many of the victims are from districts outside Kolkata and had come to the city only to attend the famous Durga Puja celebrations in the state capital.

“The puja is now over for us forever. We lost our daughter during the pujas,” said Vinod Haldar, a rickshaw puller and the distraught father of the 17-year-old. His daughter, a resident of New Town, was visiting Durga Puja pandals in the city on Saturday (October 17, 2026) evening when the family’s celebrations turned into tragedy. Mr Haldar has been informed by his daughter’s friends who are devastated by the loss of their friend.

Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said he would visit the families of the deceased at their homes in the coming days.

Long way home

Families stood outside the morgue in the northern part of the city on Sunday afternoon, waiting for the bodies to be handed over after autopsies.

Arrangements will be made to ensure dignity while handing over the bodies of the deceased, Mr. Adhikari said. Minister of State for Health Sharadwat Mukherjee and Minister Tapas Ray visited the families and paid their respects to the deceased.

Family members broke down as they completed the formalities and carried the bodies to the snaking line of hearses waiting outside the mortuary. Vans take the bodies back to their homes.

“We were trying to get some answers. We got a call that our daughter was in the hospital and we rushed here to realize she had died. How are we going to get home if she’s not there?” a distraught family member told The Hindu.

During the day, several spectators were seen visiting the site of the stampede, Chorbagan Sarbajanin Durga Puja. “Can you tell me where it happened?” the woman asked as she tried to click a photo of the stampede.

Many got into verbal exchanges with local police volunteers who tried to remove them from the area as investigations into the incident were ongoing.

Published – 18 October 2026 21:50 IST