Stampede at religious event in India kills at least 116, mostly women and children

It was not immediately clear what triggered the panic following an event with a Hindu guru known locally as Bhole Baba. Local news reports cited authorities who said heat and suffocation in the tent could have been a factor. Video of the aftermath showed the structure appeared to have collapsed.

At least 116 people died, most of them women and children, said Prashant Kumar, the director-general of police in northern India’s state of Uttar Pradesh, where the stampede occurred.

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.

Deadly stampedes are relatively common around Indian religious festivals, where large crowds gather in small areas with shoddy infrastructure and few safety measures.

Police officer Rajesh Singh said there was likely overcrowding at the event in a village in Hathras district about 350 kilometres (220 miles) southwest of the state capital, Lucknow.

Initial reports said organizers had permission to host about 5,000 people, but more than 15,000 came for the event by the Hindu preacher, who used to be a police officer in the state before he left his job to give religious sermons. He has led other such gatherings over the last two decades.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered condolences to the families of the dead and said the federal government was working with state authorities to ensure the injured received help.

Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, called the stampede “heart-wrenching” in a post on X. He said authorities were investigating.

“Look what happened and how many people have lost their lives. Will anyone be accountable?” Rajesh Kumar Jha, a member of parliament, told reporters. He said the stampede was a failure by the state and federal governments to manage large crowds, adding that “people will keep on dying” if authorities do not take safety protocols seriously enough.

In 2013, pilgrims visiting a temple for a popular Hindu festival in central Madhya Pradesh state trampled each other amid fears that a bridge would collapse. At least 115 were crushed to death or died in the river.

In 2011, more than 100 Hindu devotees died in a crush at a religious festival in the southern state of Kerala.

A look at stampedes and crowd disasters in India over the years

 

12 die in crowd surge at popular Hindu shrine

A crowd surge at a popular Hindu shrine in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed at least 12 people and injured 15 on New Year’s Day 2022. The crush occurred at the Mata Vaishnav Devi shrine, where tens of thousands of Hindus had gathered to pay respects.

Stampede during morning rush kills 22 on Mumbai pedestrian bridge

A stampede on a crowded pedestrian bridge connecting two Mumbai railway stations killed 22 people and injured 32 during the morning rush on Sept. 29, 2017. Police said some commuters leapt over the railing while others were crushed or fell underfoot and were trampled.

2 dozen are killed on overcrowded bridge in Varanasi

At least 24 people were killed and 20 injured in a stampede on Oct. 15, 2016, as they crossed a crowded bridge to reach a Hindu religious ceremony in northern India. The stampede took place on the outskirts of Varanasi, a city in Uttar Pradesh known for its temples. Organizers had expected 3,000 devotees at the ceremony, but more than 70,000 thronged the ashram of a local Hindu leader on the banks of the Ganges River.

Crowd surge along Godavari River kills at least 27

Tens of thousands of pilgrims taking part in a Hindu religious bathing festival surged forward and triggered a massive stampede on a riverbank in southern India, leaving at least 27 dead and dozens injured. The stampede along the Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh on July 14, 2015, was triggered by some pilgrims who tried to retrieve their shoes, which had fallen off when they first made their way to the riverbank.

115 die after collapsing bridge leads to stampede during festival

A collapsing bridge caused a stampede that killed 115 people, mostly women and children, on Oct. 13, 2013. They were among hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who had come to the Hindu temple in the remote town of Ratangarh in Madhya Pradesh state on the last day of the popular 10-day Navaratri festival.

Last-minute rail platform change causes stampede that kills 36

Some 36 people were killed on Feb. 10, 2013, in a stampede in a train station in the northern Indian city of Allahabad, where millions of Hindu devotees had gathered for Kumbh Mela — or Pitcher Festival — one of the world’s largest religious gatherings. Tens of thousands of people were in the city’s main rail station waiting to board a train when railway officials announced a last-minute change in the platform, forcing people to rush there, eyewitnesses said.

Nearly 200 die in stampede at crowded temple in Jodhpur

At least 168 people were killed and 100 injured when thousands of pilgrims stampeded at a Hindu temple in Jodhpur on Sept. 30, 2008. Severe overcrowding apparently caused the crush as more than 12,000 people gathered at the temple to celebrate Navratra, a Hindu festival.

145 killed in stampede caused by rumours of a landslide

Dozens of women and children were among 145 people who died on Aug. 3, 2008, when thousands of pilgrims stampeded at a remote mountaintop temple in northern India during celebrations to honour Shakrti, a Hindu goddess. The devotees were attending a nine-day religious festival at the Naina Devi Temple in the Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh state. Rumours of a landslide apparently started the panic, according to a senior government official.

Stampede and subsequent blaze kill 258 during religious procession

A stampede during a religious procession to a hilltop temple on Jan. 25, 2005, killed at least 258 people and injured 200 in western India, near the village of Wai, some 150 miles (241 kilometres) south of Bombay, in Satara district. The stampede was triggered after several Hindu pilgrims inside the temple fell on a slippery floor and were crushed to death by other pilgrims who apparently walked on them. Angered over the deaths, some pilgrims started a fire that gutted hundreds of makeshift shops along a narrow walkway leading to the temple and set off the deadly rush.