HATHRAS (Reuters) – The death toll from a stampede at a Hindu religious congregation in northern India has risen to 121, news agency ANI reported on Wednesday, where a police report said the number of people present was more than triple the permitted capacity.
The stampede on Tuesday was at the religious event in a village in Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh state, about 200 km (125 miles) southeast of New Delhi, where police had given permission for 80,000 people to gather, according to the document, the first information report.
Around 250,000 people attended the event, according to the police report reviewed by Reuters.
At least 121 people were killed and 28 were injured, ANI news agency reported, citing local officials.
The victims included 108 women and seven children, Manoj Kumar Singh, Uttar Pradesh state's chief secretary, told reporters.
The document described a scene of utter chaos when the preacher at the congregation, Surajpal, also known as 'Bhole Baba', was leaving in his car.
Thousands of devotees shouted and ran towards the car, crushing others still sitting in the gathering, according to the document. Some people also fell into an adjacent field of slush and mud and were trampled there.
Local media said the event was organised by a group of devotees, but did not identify anyone. ANI news agency, in which Reuters has a minority stake, said police were trying to ascertain the whereabouts of the preacher.
Police officials in Hathras were not immediately available for comment.
The devotees at the event included Kamla, who said she had been attending the preacher's gatherings for two decades.
"I went to attend satsang (religious meet) with my 16-year old daughter and a stampede broke out around 2 in the afternoon," she told ANI.
Although both of them were injured, her daughter succumbed in hospital, she said.
MAJOR STAMPEDES
Here is a list of major stampedes in India over the years, most of them at religious festivals or gatherings:
JANUARY 2005: More than 265 Hindu devotees were killed and hundreds more injured after a stampede at the Mandhardevi temple in Wai town in the western state of Maharashtra. The stampede was caused by slippery steps leading up to the temple, media reported at the time.
AUGUST 2008: At the mountaintop Naina Devi temple in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, about 145 Hindu pilgrims died after rumours of a landslide triggered a stampede.
SEPTEMBER 2008: A total of 250 people were trampled to death at the Chamundagar temple in the northern desert state of Rajasthan as pilgrims gathered to celebrate Navratri, a nine-day festival that celebrates the Goddess Durga.
MARCH 2010: At least 63 people, more than half of them children, were killed in a stampede triggered by a massive rush for free food and clothes at a Hindu temple in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, media reported.
FEBRUARY, 2013: At least 36 Hindu pilgrims were killed in a stampede on the busiest day of the Kumbh Mela, a gathering where more than 100 million pilgrims gather over a period of two months, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Of the dead, 27 were women, including an eight-year-old girl.
NOVEMBER 2013: Around 115 people were killed and more than a hundred injured after a stampede at the Ratangarh temple in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh after more than 150,000 people gathered to celebrate Navratri.
JANUARY 2022: At least 12 people died and more were injured in a stampede at the Vaishno Devi temple in Jammu and Kashmir, after a huge crowd of devotees tried to go into the shrine though its narrow entrance.