The death toll from a stampede at a Hindu religious congregation in northern India has risen to 121, authorities said on Wednesday (3), as a police report said the number of people attending the service was more than triple the permitted capacity.
Tuesday’s stampede (2) took place in the village of Phulrai Mughal Garhi in Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh state, about 200 kilometers southeast of New Delhi, where about 250,000 people gathered despite permission being given for only 80,000, according to the police’s first information report.
At least 121 people were killed and 31 injured, according to state authorities, with the dead including 112 women and seven children.
At Hathras district hospital, where several victims were taken, doctors told Reuters that most of the deaths were due to asphyxiation.
“The injuries are less because… if you are caught in a stampede, the injuries are mostly fractures, scratches or body aches, so most people got up and left,” said Neeta Jain, doctor in charge of the hospital’s emergency ward.
Authorities described a scene of utter chaos as the congregation’s preacher, Surajpal, also known as ‘Bhole Baba’, was leaving in his car.
Thousands of worshippers screamed and rushed toward the car, crushing others who were still sitting in the crowd, the document said. Some people also fell into an adjacent field of mud and were trampled.
In a letter to the district administrator seen by Reuters, a junior officer who was present at the event described similar scenes, saying the commotion began when devotees running towards the preacher’s vehicle were stopped by his staff, with many falling to the ground in the scuffle.
Some devotees ran into nearby open fields to escape the stampede, but slipped and fell into the path of the rest of the crowd, the police report stated.
Local media said the event was organized by a group of devotees but did not identify anyone. The ANI news agency, in which Reuters has a minority stake, said police were trying to establish the preacher’s whereabouts.
Police officials in Hathras were not immediately available for comment.
One of those who died was Ruby, 30, who traveled more than 300km to attend the congregation with her father, Chedilal.
“I heard terrible screams of women (during the stampede) and there were bodies piled on the ground near the exit. I got scared, ran away and started calling my daughter,” Chedilal told Reuters.
After a harrowing night of visiting different hospitals to locate his daughter, Chedilal said he finally found her body at Hathras district hospital in the morning.
The event site, amid rice fields near a busy highway, was littered with waste and partially flooded after rains on Wednesday morning.
Source: CNN Brasil
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