More than 100 people were killed and scores injured in a stampede Tuesday at a Hindu religious event in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh where thousands of worshipers had gathered.
Most of the dead so far are women and children who appear to have suffocated in a stampede in Hathras district, said Ashish Kumar, the district magistrate.
“The number of confirmed deaths so far is 116,” said Chaitra V., a senior official in the Aligarh administrative region, which includes Hathras.
Local authorities suggested that heat and overcrowding triggered the panic. Temperatures in Hathras hovered around 38 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, with very high humidity. Eyewitnesses speaking to local media said some of the victims fell on top of each other in a drainage ditch.
The event, a large Hindu prayer meeting, was organized by a local guru known as Bhole Baba and Sakar Vishwa Hari, who has led such gatherings for more than two decades. The stampede occurred at the end of the meeting, which was held under a large tent.
“When he finished his sermon and left the stage, his followers rushed to touch him,” said Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. in a video released by his office“When the volunteers tried to stop the crowd, this incident took place.”
He added that an investigation into the cause of the stampede had been opened.
Rajesh Singh, a Hathras police officer, said the permit for the event had been for 5,000 people. But initial reports from the scene indicated the crowd was much larger than that, he said in a telephone interview.
More than 150 people have been admitted to different hospitals, he said.
Umesh Kumar Tripathi, a doctor in the neighbouring Etah district of western Uttar Pradesh, said that as more victims were taken to hospitals, “the death toll could increase”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking in the Indian parliament when news of the deaths reached him, said his “government is engaged in relief and rescue operations.”
“I assure everyone through this House that the victims will be helped in every possible way,” Mr Modi said.
The guru who led the congregation is a former government employee who became a self-proclaimed spiritual leader and built a large following, according to Indian media reports. During his sermons, he is usually accompanied on stage by his wife, both seated on large thrones. He often dresses in white, either in a Western suit with colorful ties or in traditional Indian white attire.
Not verified videos On social media, a large number of corpses, mainly those of women, have appeared in the courtyard of what looks like a public hospital.
Hathras is located in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India, with about 240 million people.
In India, jostling Cases of violence during religious pilgrimages are relatively common, often due to poor enforcement of public safety measures. In one of the deadliest cases in recent years, More than 100 people were killed in 2013 in the north-central state of Madhya Pradesh during a procession for Navratri, a celebration of the Hindu goddess Durga.
In recent years, authorities have stepped up surveillance of large religious gatherings by deploying more police and using drones.
“Neither the federal nor the state government has managed to develop a sensible approach to crowd management,” said Manoj Kumar Jha, a member of the Indian Parliament. “As a nation, we are good at attracting crowds, but not at managing them.”
“Every year, these kinds of incidents happen again without us learning any lessons.”
