A fatal stampede among thousands of people at a religious gathering in northern India has killed around 116 people and left scores injured.
As reported by the Associated Press on Tuesday, July 2, many women and children were among the dead.
According to Al Jazeera, a large crowd had gathered in a village in Uttar Pradesh state’s Hathras district for a sermon by a preacher but a fierce dust storm caused panic as people were leaving.
Ashish Kumar, administrator of the Hathras district, narrated to reporters:
“The incident happened due to overcrowding at the time when people were trying to leave the venue.”
Unverified videos on social media showed bodies piled up on the ground outside a local hospital.
Senior police officer Shalabh Mathur in Uttar Pradesh state confirmed that 105 people had already died while 84 others were injured and admitted to hospitals.
This is not the first time that a large number of people died in stampedes at temples and other religious gatherings over the years in India.
VIDEO | Hathras stampede: "This was an unfortunate and a heart-wrenching incident. The CM is monitoring the entire situation. Our priority is to provide immediate assistance to the injured and send the dead bodies to their family members after conducting the post-mortem. The… pic.twitter.com/wiLsViHOCg
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 2, 2024
Some of the largest casualties caused by stampedes at religious gatherings include the death of more than 340 devotees at Maharashtra’s Mandhardevi temple in 2005 and at least 250 were killed at Rajasthan’s Chamunda Devi temple in 2008.
A stampede at a religious gathering at Naina Devi temple in Himachal Pradesh caused the loss of lives of 162 people in 2008.
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