Stampede victims lined up at a hospital in Mughalsarai. (AP)

Lucknow, Oct. 3: Fourteen women rushing to catch a train to Varanasi died in a stampede at Mughalsarai railway station this afternoon.

The women, who were on a pilgrimage, had arrived from Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh in two trains and were hurrying up the stairs to board the connecting train to Varanasi.

Around 1.45pm, the Buxar-Mughalsarai Passenger and the Gaya-Mughalsarai Passenger pulled into platforms 5 and 6, respectively. The Mughalsarai-Varanasi Passenger was waiting at platform No. 4.

“After the two trains offloaded passengers headed for Varanasi, they were in a hurry to go over to platform No. 4. They rushed towards the overbridge, fearing they would miss the train,” Uttar Pradesh special home secretary Mahesh Gupta said.

Harendra Rao, the additional divisional railway manager at Mughalsarai, said one of the women missed a step while climbing the stairs to the overbridge and went tumbling down, which led to the stampede.

He added that it was also possible that “someone had spread wrong information that an overhead wire had fallen and electrocuted some women, and then the mad rush for retreat began”.

The passage leading to the overbridge wore telltale marks of the tragedy. The spot was littered with abandoned baggage, shoes and chappals. Some women, too, lay there unconscious for nearly an hour before being taken to hospital in a railway truck.

Gupta said 41 women and children were injured and had been admitted to the Mughalsarai Railway Hospital. Eight persons with serious head injuries were later shifted to the Benaras Hindu University Hospital.

The injured being treated at a Mughalsarai hospital. (PTI)

The Government Railway Police found 12 children who had got estranged from their mothers. They were taken to the railway hospital.

Most of the dead and injured are said to be from Bihar’s Bhojpur and Buxar districts and Chandauli in Uttar Pradesh. At least seven victims, none of whom has been identified, were in the 50-60 age group.

Gupta said most of the women died of suffocation after the stampede. The victims had been fasting for the Jitiya festival, in which women pray for their children after a dip in the Ganga.

Some witnesses have told the police that they had heard about a live wire hanging from the bridge.

Radhika Mandal, one of the pilgrims from Buxar, said she had been told about a short circuit at the top of the overbridge. “Some women were rushing down the stairs, screaming and waving their hands asking us to go back,” the 56-year-old said.

According to Chandauli superintendent of police Pravin Kumar, some passengers have alleged that policemen accompanying ticket collectors charged at the women, which led to the stampede. “But we are still verifying this statement,” he said.

However, A.K. Chandra, the chief public relations officer of East-Central Railway, denied it. “I have come to know that the women had been fasting for 24 hours. It was noon, and most of them died of exhaustion.”

Chandra also rubbished reports about railway officers being responsible and that the platform from which the train to Varanasi was to leave had been changed at the last minute.

At the cramped railway hospital’s emergency ward, some injured women lay on the floor. S.K. Singh, one of the attending doctors, said most of the women suffered from exhaustion and dehydration. “They had not had any food for at least 24 hours,” he said.

Railway minister Lalu Prasad visited the site and ordered a high-level probe. He faced angry passengers who alleged that some officers had mishandled the movement of the Varanasi-bound pilgrims and demanded that they be punished.

The Uttar Pradesh government is carrying out a separate probe to find out if there was any lapse on the part of the GRP.

Uttar Pradesh chief secretary P.K. Mishra has left for Mughalsarai and is expected to submit a report to the state government.

More than 122 trains cross Mughalsarai station, one of the busiest junctions on the Delhi-Howrah route, daily. During the stampede, at least 1,000 passengers were going from one platform to another, the police said.