71 people burned alive as Venus Circus gets engulfed in raging inferno in Bangalore

The big top roared with children's laughter as the curtain was about to come down on yet another show of the Venus Circus in Bangalore. The time: 6.30 p.m. The peals of laughter suddenly gave place to shrieks and shouts of 'benki, benk' (fire! fire!). The central flank of the highdomed tent was ablaze.

The crackling sound of fire mingled with the agonized wailing of helpless children and women as the survival instinct made the men and the able-bodied head for the only exit trampling on the young and the weak, now engulfed in the burning inferno. In 10 minutes, the entire tent was reduced to ashes, leaving in its ruins chunks of roasted and mouldering human flesh and a mountain of footwear. Seventy-one bodies were recovered and identified but it will be days before the real toll is known. Except for five men and seven women, the rest of the dead were children. Eighty-six people have been admitted to hospitals with serious burns.

The tragedy, considered the worst in Indian circus history, brought to the surface the best and the worst in human nature. While firemen, whose task was made more difficult by the switching off of the power supply in the area as a safety measure, groped in darkness amongst the debris for any lingering trace of life, anti-social elements were busy scavenging for any valuables they could lay their hands on. An orderly evacuation would have considerably reduced the toll. While the low death toll among men is a telling reflection on the lack of chivalry and consideration in many, a few showed extraordinary courage, with little regard for their own safety.

Subramaniam, a teacher in the Bapuji Teachers' Association Middle School, who came with 300 students for the show, made several forays into the burning tent and rescued as many as 40 boys trapped inside. The giant weightlifter of the circus, similarly made many sorties carrying on his broad shoulders as many of the tiny tots as he could lay his hand on, unmindful of his personal safety.