LUCKNOW (INDIA) - At least 116 people were crushed to death in a stampede at a religious gathering in northern India, police inspector Gen Shalabh Mathur said Tuesday.
The incident took place at a satsang (a Hindu religious event) in Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh state.
The victims, including a large number of women and some children, are still being identified. Survivors have described how the disaster unfolded as they tried to leave the event in Mughalgarhi village.
It is not yet clear what led to the crush. Witnesses said the exit was too narrow and when people were leaving, a fierce dust storm led to confusion and panic, causing many people to become trampled.
An eyewitness, who asked to remain anonymous, told the BBC everything was “going fine”, until “all of a sudden I heard screams and before I knew it, people were falling on each other”.
“Many were crushed and I couldn’t do much. I am just lucky to have survived.”
“When the sermon finished, everyone started running out,” a woman named only as Shakuntala 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.”
“We have confirmed 97 deaths so far and are focusing on providing relief and medical aid for the victims,” Chaitra V., divisional commissioner of Aligarh city in Uttar Pradesh state, told AFP.
“The attendees were exiting the venue when a dust storm blinded their vision, leading to a melee and the subsequent tragic incident,” she said.
Most of the dead were women, according to state chief medical officer Umesh Kumar Tripathi, who told reporters “many injured” have been admitted to hospital. Lines of ambulances carried the injured to hospitals. Wailing women and crying men gathered outside one mortuary in the town of Etah, where many of the dead were taken, seeking news of their relatives.
Deadly incidents are common at places of worship during major religious festivals in India, the biggest of which prompt millions of devotees to make pilgrimages to holy sites.
“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.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced compensation of $2,400 to the next of kin of those who died and $600 to those injured in the “tragic incident”.
President Droupadi Murmu said the deaths were “heart-rending” and offered her “deepest condolences”.