LUCKNOW, India (AP) — Thousands of people at a religious gathering in India rushed to leave a makeshift tent, setting off a stampede Tuesday that killed at least 116 people and injured dozens, officials said.
It was not immediately clear what caused the panic after an incident involving a Hindu guru known locally as Bhole Baba. Local news reports quoted authorities as saying heat and suffocation in the tent may have been a factor. Video footage of the aftermath showed the structure appearing to have collapsed.
At least 116 people, most of them women and children, were killed, according to Prashant Kumar, director general of police in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where the panic took place.
According to police chief Shalabh Mathur, more than 80 others were injured and taken to hospitals.
“People started falling on each other, on each other. Those who were crushed died. People there pulled them out,” witness Shakuntala Devi told the Press Trust of India news agency.
Relatives wept in grief as the bodies of the dead, laid on stretchers and covered with white sheets, covered the grounds of a local hospital. A bus that arrived there was carrying more victims, whose bodies lay on seats inside.
Deadly stampedes often occur around Indian religious festivals, with large groups of people gathering in small places with poor infrastructure and few security measures.
Police officer Rajesh Singh said there was likely overcrowding at the event in a village in Hathras district, about 350 kilometres (220 miles) southwest of the state capital Lucknow.
Initial reports said organizers had permission to host about 5,000 people, but more than 15,000 turned up for the event hosted by the Hindu preacher, who was a former police officer in the state before quitting his job to deliver religious sermons. He has led other such gatherings over the past two decades.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences to the families of the dead and said the federal government was working with state authorities to ensure that the injured received assistance.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath called the stampede “heartbreaking” in a post on X. He said authorities were investigating.
“Look at what has happened and how many people have died. Will anyone be held accountable?” Rajesh Kumar Jha, a member of parliament, told reporters. He said the stampede was a failure of state and federal governments to control large crowds, adding that “people will continue to die” if authorities do not take safety protocols seriously enough.
In 2013, pilgrims visiting a temple for a popular Hindu festival in the central state of Madhya Pradesh trampled each other over fears that a bridge would collapse. At least 115 people were crushed or died in the river.
In 2011, more than 100 Hindu devotees were killed during a religious festival in the southern state of Kerala.
___
Pathi reported from New Delhi.
