Stampede and crowd collapse

Introduction

Stampede or crushing is the surge of individuals in a crowd, in response to a perceived danger or loss of physical space. It often disrupts the orderly movement of crowds resulting in irrational and dangerous movement for self-protection leading to injuries and fatalities.

With population growth and a constant increase in human travels, mass gatherings are becoming more frequent and attract increasing numbers of participants. Mass gatherings can be defined as a concentration of people at a specific location for a specific purpose over a set period of time, and which has the potential to strain the planning and response resources of the country or the community.

This is a collection of resources on stampedes, crowd compression and management.

Knowledge base

Themes

Hazards

Region & country

Content type

Documents and publications

31 October 2024

Experimental study on the synchronization mechanism and trigger characteristic density of vertical evacuation in crowds

This paper designs a well-controlled single-file vertical evacuation experiment in relation to stampedes.

Update

9 July 2024

Hajj in extraordinary heat: what a scholar of Islam saw in Mecca

While the tragic deaths came to be the focus of much of the media coverage, there were many other dimensions of Hajj 2024. But, of late, the Saudi government’s management of this gathering has been criticized.

Conversation Media Group, the

Update

3 July 2024

Deadly crowd crush at Indian religious gathering shows how dangerous leaving an event can be

A global database of deaths from crowd accidents shows more than 1,477 people have lost their lives since 2000 in over 50 disastrous mass gatherings in India (excluding the very recent incident).

Conversation Media Group, the

Documents and publications

8 February 2024

Intelligent evacuation sign control mechanism in IoT-enabled multi-floor multi-exit buildings

This paper introduces an intelligent evacuation sign control mechanism that leverages smoke and temperature sensors to dynamically adjust the direction of evacuation signs, ensuring evacuees are guided to the quickest and safest emergency exit.

Documents and publications

11 November 2023

Public behaviour in response to perceived hostile threats: An evidence base and guide for practitioners and policymakers

In this paper authors were able to examine experiences, measure behaviour, and test hypotheses about underlying psychological mechanisms in both false alarms and public interventions against a hostile threat.

Documents and publications

25 April 2023

Global mass gathering events and deaths due to crowd surge, stampedes, crush and physical injuries – Lessons from the Seoul Halloween and other disasters

This paper explores one of the worst stampede disasters in South Korea, which caused 156 deaths and crush injuries in 170, which occurred on October 29, 2022, during celebrations for Halloween.

Documents and publications

2 March 2023

Review of analyses on crowd-gathering risk and its evaluation methods

This paper reviews and summarizes overcrowding and stampedes.

Update

5 December 2022

How do stampedes happen and how can we prevent them?

Over the course of one month, two stampedes in Indonesia and South Korea have caused a staggering loss of life. We must ask ourselves, why are these stampedes happening? And can they be prevented?

International Youths Organization for Peace and Sustainability (IYOPS)

Documents and publications

10 March 2022

CRED Crunch, Issue no. 65, March 2022: Technological disasters: trends & transport accidents

This newsletter looks at patterns of technological disaster over the last 20 years. As well as disasters related to natural hazards, EM-DAT reports on technological disasters, which are categorized into industrial, transport, and miscellaneous accidents.