Kolkata, Oct. 19 -- Akriti Kumari, 17, was for the first time accompanied by her relatives, some of whom had arrived from Gaya in Bihar, for pandal hopping in Kolkata. A trip to the Chor Bagan pandal, one of the city's most popular Durga Puja venues, on Saturday evening turned out to be her last after a tragic stampede claimed 19 lives and left several others injured. "We had seen the idol and were going out. My sister (Akriti) was holding my hand. The pressure was increasing with each second. There was no way out," Sukriti Raut, Akriti's cousin from Gaya, told reporters. Raut recalled that her cousin, a resident of Bally in Howrah district, was stuck in the crowd as the pressure from all directions mounted. "Then the stampede started and she fell down. I lost her. Somebody pulled me out and I got saved. My sister died," Raut added. The stampede occurred at the Chor Bagan pandal around 7.30 pm on Saturday as crowds jostled through a narrow bylane on Saptami, the seventh day of the festival, even as rain lashed the city and left the streets slippery. Officials said the pandal had witnessing heavy footfall for the past two-three days. Of the 19 people killed in the incident, 13 were female. Four minors were also among the deceased. At Madhabdidhi hamlet in East Burdwan district, a pall of gloom descended after 14-year-old Sandip Bhej, a class 8 student, his mother Tagar Bhej, 37, and aunt Piyali Pramanik, 25, died in the stampede. Sandip's elder sister Agamoni survived. "Sandip was not interested in visiting Kolkata as he was more engrossed in the pandal in our village. Every day he would visit the local puja pandal on his bicycle and give us updates," Subrata Pramanik, a relative of Sandip's, told HT over phone. "Tagar told him that they will go to their uncle's house in Kolkata, visit some of the pandals and return the next day. Now their bodies are coming back." Tragedy also befell on the Srivastava family from Muzaffarpur in Bihar who had come to Kolkata for a pandal-hopping. Two members of the family- Abhishek Kumar Srivastava, 38 and his son Ayansh - died in the stampede. "They left the residence at around 5 pm. They went to Chor Bagan. Abhishek's wife Nibha and another family members sustained minor injuries and returned home. We are shattered. We never thought that this trip would cost their lives," Rajesh Srivastava, Abhishek's brother told reporters. Binod Halder, father of Barnali Halder, broke down as he recalled how on his daughter's insistence, he let her go with her friends for pandal-hopping for a few hours. Tragedy struck in those few hours and the 17-year-old girl from Gouranganagar in New Town was killed in the stampede. Barnali along with her friend Tania Biswas, 18, also a resident of Gouranganagar died in the stampede....