At least 116 people were killed in a stampede at a religious gathering in central India’s Uttar Pradesh state Tuesday, police said. Most of the victims appeared to have been women, but authorities were still racing to confirm the number of casualties brought in to different hospitals in the region.
A large crowd had gathered on Tuesday in a village in Uttar Pradesh state’s Hathras district, about 200km (125 miles) southeast of national capital New Delhi, for a sermon by a preacher but a fierce dust storm sparked panic as people were leaving.
Local medical authorities said the stampede in Mughalghari village in Uttar Pradesh took place as hundreds of people that gathered for a Hindu prayer meeting were leaving the venue.
Initially, the local Chief Medical Officer, Rajkumar Aggarwal, said 27 bodies were taken to a local hospital, most of them women and children. The death toll has since soared, while more than 80 others were injured and admitted to hospitals, senior police officer Shalabh Mathur said.
“People started falling one upon another, one upon another. Those who were crushed died. People there pulled them out,” witness Shakuntala Devi told the Press Trust of India news agency.
Relatives wailed in distress as bodies of the dead, placed on stretchers and covered in white sheets, lined the grounds of a local hospital. A bus that arrived there carried more victims, whose bodies were lying on the seats inside.(dpa/NAN)
