The Jetty 3 bridge, the stampede spot at Kakdwip. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

Kakdwip, Jan. 14: Six elderly women and a child died in a stampede at Kakdwip this morning, crushed by other pilgrims hurrying to board a Sagar-island-bound ferry for the Sankranti holy dip at the auspicious hour.

All the victims were from outside Bengal and among the 6.5 lakh people who visited Ganga Sagar this year.

According to witnesses, the stampede happened around 4.30am when thousands of pilgrims started jostling to board a ferry at Jetty 3 in Kakdwip, about 120km from Calcutta.

The vessel was to take them to Kachuberia on the Sagar island, an hour’s journey.

A sadhu said the rush was because the holy dip was to start soon after. “The dip was to start from 4.47am and go on till 7.59am. The pilgrims were in a hurry to reach Sagar before the deadline expired,” said Himanshu Smirti Tirtha.

Santosh Giri, whose three-year-old son Aditya died, said: “We had been waiting at Jetty 3 from 4am to board the ferry. But there was a sudden rush among the pilgrims once the launch arrived at 4.30 to take us to Kachuberia. I saw dozens of pilgrims falling on my child who was holding my wife Mamata’s hand. One of the pilgrims also fell on me when I tried to rescue them.”

The 42-year-old man, who works as a havildar in the army and is based in Bihar’s Samastipur, said though he escaped with minor injuries because of “my strong built”, his “dream of a happy home was smashed”. “I paid a heavy price for coming on this pilgrimage. My son is no more and my wife is fighting for life with multiple injuries,” he said, standing near the jetty.

The women who died were Amjaria Devi, 75 and Kishori Devi, 52, from Uttar Pradesh, Rukmini Devi, 75, Meena Devi, 52, and Sarabati Devi, 70, from Haryana. The body of one woman is yet to be identified, police said.

The government has ordered a probe to ascertain if there was any lapse on the part of the administration. “We have ordered a probe into the stampede,” chief secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti said at Writers’ Buildings.

The injured were admitted to the Diamond Harbour sub-divisional hospital. Some were brought to Calcutta late in the afternoon.

Today’s accident was the second in two days in which pilgrims died. Yesterday, a dozing driver rammed a bus carrying Ganga Sagar pilgrims bent on making it to Calcutta by morning into a stationary truck on Durgapur Expressway, killing eight people.

Khalil Ahmed, the South 24-Parganas district magistrate who accompanied Srikumar Mukherjee, the minister of state for disaster management to the spot, gave a different version. He said the stampede happened when a bamboo barricade gave way. “People started falling on each other when the barricade fell leading to the stampede,” he said.