At least five spectators died after visiting the Indian Air Force (IAF) air show in Chennai on Sunday, where many complained about huge crowds, heat and mismanagement.

One man reportedly suffered a sun stroke while he was riding his bike after the show. He was stuck in traffic for more than an hour. 

“Volunteers even identified his condition as he was losing control amid the stranded crowd and helped him get off the bike,” an eyewitness told NDTV.

A senior medical officer said a post-mortem would identify the cause of death”.

Questions are being raised over the Indian Air Force aggressively pushing this event to set a Limca Book of World Record by aiming to mobilise 15 lakh spectators — much beyond manageable — and the Chennai City Police’s poor crowd and traffic management.

DMK MP K Kanimozhi said unmanageable gatherings should be avoided.

“The news of the death of 5 people is very sad and painful when the public who witnessed the IAF adventure program held at the Marina beach in Chennai suffered from the crowd and the temperature was high. Unmanageable gatherings should also be avoided,” she said.

Everything had been going smoothly ahead of the event, with largescale traffic diversion and parking regulations. But closer to the air show — scheduled at 11 am — the crowd got so large that the elevated MRTS railway stations along the Marina Beach road had turned into a sea of people. 

Chaos broke out after the event when the crowd started to disperse. Every inch of the space on the Beach road appeared occupied. 

The arrangement for drinking water in the spectators’ area was allegedly inadequate. With temperature soaring and no public transport, hundreds had to walk three to four kilometres on the jam-packed roads to get any public conveyance or pick up their vehicles.

Many – children among them – just sat on the sidewalk, tired and dehydrated. Many were seen attending to fainting or weary people.

With no effective police regulation on the ground, vehicles and two wheelers haphazardly entered both ways and remained stuck for more than two hours on most roads. 

Many police personnel were busy returning on their two wheelers, turning into mute spectators. They neither regulated the situation nor intervened to help stranded ambulances until there was public uproar. 

There was no drinking water stations along the roads. Most eateries on these stretches were shut and shops that were open ran out of water and soft drinks soon.

A woman who had brought her two children said, “The state government has failed us. No proper arrangements at all either at the venue or on the roads”. 

The Chennai police had deployed 6,500 police personnel and 1,500 home guards for security. 

It is not clear if the Tamil Nadu government – which has a culture of objecting to mass gatherings citing security concerns – had expressed its concern to the Air Force or had advised against hyping the show.

Health Minister Ma Subramanian said in a statement the state Chief Secretary had presided over a coordination meeting with IAF and other officials had held several meetings. “Arrangements were made keeping in mind IAF’s demands. The Chennai Corporation and Metro Water too had made adequate temporary toilets and drinking water arrangements,” he said. 

Another note with no attribution claimed, “No one dead in the crowd. No death is related to crowd or mismanagement”.

The air show had included a show by the Special Garud Force commandos in a simulated rescue operation and in freeing the hostage. It also showcased 72 aircraft, including Rafale, indigenously manufactured state-of-the-art Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, Light Combat helicopter Prachand, and Heritage aircraft Dakota.