KOLKATA: The victory celebrations of Indian Premier League-5 champions Kolkata Knight Riders in Kolkata turned ugly on Tuesday when police were forced to lathicharge a section of fans who broke through the barricades to enter the Eden Gardens to catch a glimpse of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, KKR players and co-owners Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla.
Several spectators are said to have been injured in the lathicharge.
Many fans were seen running outside the stadium while some of them tried to scale the walls of the stadium to enter inside.
With Mamata having announced on Monday that the celebrations at Eden would be free of charge and open to all, the stadium filled up more than anybody's expectations.
The police had less than a day to organise the security arrangements and about 90,000 people were inside the stadium. Things, however, started to get unruly when fans at Gate No. 3 were not allowed to enter the venue as the stadium was already packed to capacity.
Earlier, thousands of frenzied fans turned up to give the triumphant Kolkata Knight Riders players a grand reception for their maiden IPL title win after Mamata Banerjee felicitated them at her office in Writers' Building.
With a crowd of thousands cheering on, IPL champions Kolkata Knight Riders began a victory parade from south Kolkata's Hazra Crossing on a flower-bedecked open top trailer.
Security forces had a tough time controlling the frenzied people lined on both sides of the road, surging forward and making frantic attempts to touch the players.
At Hazra, thousands waited for hours for the roadshow to start. Wild cheers went up as the players led by Gautam Gambhir came down from the two team buses and boarded the trailer on which was written in blue and white - "Korechi, Lorechi, Jitechi Re".
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