The Surge at Gate 2
You are the security supervisor for a Bihu cultural night at an open ground in Guwahati. The licensed capacity is 3,000, but by 19:30 about 3,400 people are inside. The turnstile at Gate 2 has failed and is stuck open; roughly 400 people are pressing outside, and the queue has spilled onto the road. It has started raining, and people are pushing under the one remaining shelter. One emergency exit, Gate 4, is blocked by four vendor carts and a generator cable. Twelve guards and six police personnel are on duty, with one medical post inside. A VIP convoy is due in 20 minutes at Gate 1. Radios are working, but the public address system is only audible near the stage.
1. What are your first three decisions, and do you stop entry? Give reasons.
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Life safety first; the capacity breach plus a stuck-open gate plus rain is a crush recipe. Decision 1: stop all further entry at every gate immediately, including Gate 2, and announce it. Decision 2: treat Gate 4 as an exit and clear it now-remove carts, move the generator cable, and deploy two guards to keep it exit-only. Decision 3: open a controlled overflow route or additional exit if the ground has one, and request police reinforcement and fire/medical standby. Do not simply close Gate 2 while the crowd is pressing; create one-way flow and a buffer with barriers, and use guards to tell people entry is full. The aim is to reduce density, not to win an argument at the gate. If the crowd surges, open all exits and let people out; do not try to hold a line with bodies.
2. How do you clear Gate 4 and handle the VIP arrival without causing a surge?
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Clear Gate 4 first: four guards, gloves, and a loud hailer; ask vendors to move immediately, and if they refuse, have police order it. Coil or reroute the generator cable so it is not a trip hazard and not across the exit. Mark the gate with a lit 'EXIT' sign and keep it opening outward. For the VIP: do not clear a path through the dense crowd at Gate 1; that creates a pressure wave. Divert the convoy to a side gate or hold it 100–150 m away until entry is stopped and the crowd is stable. Use a small escort, no siren near the crowd, and no announcement that invites people to rush. If the VIP must enter, bring them through a separate route with police, not through the main queue. VIP protocol never outranks crowd safety.
3. What do you tell the crowd and the control room, and what do you record?
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Use a short, calm PA script in Assamese, Hindi, and English: 'Entry is now closed because the ground is full. Gate 4 is open as an exit. Please move back slowly; do not push.' Repeat every 2–3 minutes and move the PA or use a hailer to reach Gate 2. Tell the control room: numbers inside and outside, gates open or closed, Gate 4 status, VIP diversion, and police and medical requests. Record times of decisions, gate status changes, vendor-cart removal, VIP diversion, injuries, and any use of force. Keep a log every 10 minutes. After the event, write an incident report noting the turnstile failure, capacity breach, blocked exit, and staff shortages; recommend a gate-failure drill and a hard cap on scanning.