A person mourns by the physique of his 37-year-old sister Ruby, sufferer of a stampede, exterior Hathras district hospital, Uttar Pradesh, India, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. | AP Picture/Rajesh Kumar Singh
LUCKNOW, India — 1000’s of individuals at a non secular gathering in India rushed to depart a makeshift tent, setting off a stampede Tuesday that killed no less than 116 folks and injured scores, officers mentioned.
It was not instantly clear what triggered the panic following an occasion with a Hindu guru recognized regionally as Bhole Baba. Native information reviews cited authorities who mentioned warmth and suffocation within the tent might have been an element. Video of the aftermath confirmed the construction appeared to have collapsed.
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At the very least 116 folks died, most of them ladies and kids, mentioned Prashant Kumar, the director-general of police in northern India’s state of Uttar Pradesh, the place the stampede occurred.
Greater than 80 others had been injured and admitted to hospitals, senior police officer Shalabh Mathur mentioned.
“Folks began falling one upon one other, one upon one other. Those that had been crushed died. Folks there pulled them out,” witness Shakuntala Devi instructed the Press Belief of India information company.
Kinfolk wailed in misery as our bodies of the lifeless, positioned on stretchers and lined in white sheets, lined the grounds of a neighborhood hospital. A bus that arrived there carried extra victims, whose our bodies had been mendacity on the seats inside.
Lethal stampedes are comparatively widespread round Indian non secular festivals, the place giant crowds collect in small areas with shoddy infrastructure and few security measures.
Police officer Rajesh Singh mentioned there was probably overcrowding on the occasion in a village in Hathras district about 350 kilometers (220 miles) southwest of the state capital, Lucknow.
Preliminary reviews mentioned organizers had permission to host about 5,000 folks, however greater than 15,000 got here for the occasion by the Hindu preacher, who was once a police officer within the state earlier than he left his job to present non secular sermons. He has led different such gatherings during the last 20 years.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi provided condolences to the households of the lifeless and mentioned the federal authorities was working with state authorities to make sure the injured acquired assist.
Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, known as the stampede “heart-wrenching” in a publish on X. He mentioned authorities had been investigating.
“Look what occurred and the way many individuals have misplaced their lives. Will anybody be accountable?” Rajesh Kumar Jha, a member of parliament, instructed reporters. He mentioned the stampede was a failure by the state and federal governments to handle giant crowds, including that “folks will carry on dying” if authorities don’t take security protocols severely sufficient.
In 2013, pilgrims visiting a temple for a well-liked Hindu competition in central Madhya Pradesh state trampled one another amid fears {that a} bridge would collapse. At the very least 115 had been crushed to demise or died within the river.
In 2011, greater than 100 Hindu devotees died in a crush at a non secular competition within the southern state of Kerala.
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