Rumour having a hand in stampede?

While all are anxious to know the outcome of the probe ordered by the Bihar government into the stampede here, to be conducted by state Home Secretary Amir Subhani and police ADG Gupteshwar Pandey, accounts by witnesses and officials point at rumour having a possible hand in the tragedy.
According to police officials present at the place of occurrence, a rumour about electric supply line falling on the crowd near the western exit gate of Gandhi Maidan spread like wildfire, triggering panic among people who ran for cover.
"Actually it was a broken cable TV wire. Some people, including youths, started the rumour about it being an electricity line. Sudden panic gripped the people and they trampled over one another in their efforts to run away from the place. Women and children bore the brunt," said Satya Narayan Ram, DSP (Police Headquarters) told PTI.

A half-a-kilometre-long trail of left over shoes, slippers and footwear from Ram Gulam Chowk outside Gandhi Maidan, where the stampede started, to the eastern gate of the ground bore testimony to the incident.
Lal Babu Prasad, a resident of Mussalahpur locality in the state capital, got caught in the melee and suffered fracture in his right leg. His friend Tinku Sah accompanying him suffered head injuries.
"I was near cinema halls near the eastern side of the Gandhi Maidan, when a crowd of several thousand came rushing. My friend and I fell down while trying to escape it. I felt my leg snap as a few people ran over it," said Prasad, a driver, ruing that he would not be able to drive for months now.

Police officials also held the damaged 'cattle guard' or 'cattle grid' installed at the western gate of the vast ground responsible for the incident. People crossing it got trapped in them and fell down.