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Agencies

At least 121 people were crushed to death at a Hindu religious gathering in northern India on Tuesday, with many others injured, government officials said, the worst such tragedy in more than a decade.
A large crowd had gathered near the city of Hathras for a sermon by a popular preacher, but a fierce dust storm sparked panic as people were leaving.
Many were crushed or trampled, falling on top of each other, with some collapsing into a roadside drain in the chaos.
“The attendees were exiting the venue when a dust storm blinded their vision, leading to a melee and the subsequent tragic incident,” said Chaitra V, divisional commissioner of Aligarh city in Uttar Pradesh state.
“We … are focusing on providing relief and medical aid for the victims,” she added.

Hours after the tragedy, she told reporters the toll had surged past a hundred.
Police said at least 18 others were injured
More than 150 people were admitted to hospitals after the crush, said medical official Umesh Tripathi.
Most of the dead were women, according to Tripathi.
“The incident happened due to overcrowding at the time when people were trying to leave the venue,” Hathras district administrator Ashish Kumar told reporters.
Initial reports suggested that more than 15,000 people had gathered for the event, which had permission to host about 5,000.
An unidentified witness told broadcaster India Today that there was a narrow exit at the venue: “As we tried to exit towards a field, suddenly a commotion started, and we didn’t know what to do.”
Witnesses and local media reports said the victims were crushed to death as the audience left the sermon.
One survivor, Jyoti, who goes only by her first name, told local media that the stampede happened quickly as soon as the event ended.

“Everyone was in a rush to leave … There was no way out and people were falling on each other,” she said.
“When the sermon finished, everyone started running out,” Shakuntala, a woman who gave only one name, told the Press Trust of India news agency.
“People fell in a drain by the road. They started falling one on top of the other and got crushed to death.”
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath “expressed condolences” to relatives of those killed, his office said on social media platform X.
“He has directed the district administration officials to immediately take the injured to the hospital for their proper treatment and to speed up the relief work at the spot,” it said.
My condolences are with those who have lost their loved ones … I wish for the speedy recovery of all the injured
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Adityanath’s office also said an investigation had been ordered into the cause of the incident.
Bodies were being brought to hospitals and morgues by trucks and private vehicles, government official Matadin Saroj said.
The stampede took place about 350km (217 miles) southwest of state capital Lucknow.
Unverified videos on social media showed bodies piled up on the ground outside a local hospital.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced compensation of US$2,400 to the next of kin of those who died and US$600 to those injured in the “tragic incident”.
“My condolences are with those who have lost their loved ones … I wish for the speedy recovery of all the injured,” Modi wrote on social media platform X.
President Droupadi Murmu said the deaths were “heart-rending” and offered her “deepest condolences”.
Yogi Adityanath, Uttar Pradesh chief minister who is also a Hindu monk, expressed his condolences to the relatives of those killed and ordered an investigation into the deaths, his office said.

Religious gatherings in India have a grim track record of deadly incidents caused by poor crowd management and safety lapses.
At least 112 people were killed in 2016 after a huge explosion caused by a banned fireworks display at a temple marking the Hindu new year.
The blast ripped through concrete buildings and ignited a fire at a temple complex in Kerala state, where thousands had gathered.
Another 115 devotees were killed in 2013 in a stampede at a bridge near a temple in Madhya Pradesh.
Up to 400,000 people were gathered in the area, and the stampede began after a rumour spread that the bridge was about to collapse.
About 224 pilgrims died and more than 400 others were injured in a 2008 stampede at a hilltop temple in the northern city of Jodhpur.
Reporting by Reuters, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse


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