More than 100 people have died in a stampede at a Hindu religious gathering in northern India. According to Chaitra V., commissioner in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, “97 deaths have been confirmed so far and we are focusing on providing relief and medical care to the victims.” Many of them are women and children.
India, dozens dead in the crush at the holy man’s gathering: images of the crowd before the tragedy
The incident occurred at a rally in Hathras, about 140 kilometers (87 miles) southeast of New Delhi, where a large crowd had gathered to listen to a sermon by a religious preacher. Witnesses and local media reports said the victims were crushed after the event ended, when the crowd began to leave the venue. “People fell into a drainage ditch on the road. They started falling on top of each other and were crushed to death,” a woman named Shakuntala told the Press Trust of India news agency.
The stampede broke out in a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district, with local media reporting that attendees rushed to leave the makeshift tent after an event featuring the Hindu figure Bhole Baba, and that the heat inside may have been a factor. Footage from after the incident showed the structure appearing to have collapsed, with women seen mourning the dead. The injured were taken to hospital.
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