Death toll from stampede in India rises to 121
3 Min Read
Deadly stampedes are relatively common around Indian religious festivals.
-
The aftermath of a stampede near the River Ganges in Haridwar in November 2011, in which more than a dozen people died. (AFP)
Survivors of India's deadliest stampede in over a decade recounted the terrifying experience of being crushed at an overcrowded Hindu religious gathering, which resulted in 121 fatalities.
According to a police report, over 250,000 people attended the event in Uttar Pradesh, significantly exceeding the 80,000 participants authorized by organizers.
By Wednesday morning, hours after the tragic incident, discarded clothing and lost shoes were strewn across the muddy site, an open field adjacent to a highway.
Witnesses reported that people fell on top of one another as they tumbled down a slope into a waterlogged ditch.
Nearly all of the fatalities were women, along with seven children and one man. Officials indicated that the stampede occurred as worshippers attempted to collect soil from the preacher's footsteps, while others attributed the incident to panic sparked by a dust storm.
Some individuals fainted under the pressure of the crowd, leading to them being trampled upon without the ability to escape. The Uttar Pradesh State Disaster Management Center, Office of the Relief Commissioner, issued a list of the deceased on Wednesday morning, confirming that 121 people lost their lives in the incident.
Not an isolated incident
The world's most populous country is no stranger to stampedes. On January 1, 2022, Indian officials said that at least 12 people were killed and 13 were injured in a stampede at a religious shrine in the early hours of Saturday, as thousands of pilgrims gathered to offer prayers.
The tragedy occurred around 3:00 am (2130 GMT) on the way to the Vaishno Devi shrine in Kashmir, one of the country's most revered Hindu sites.
A witness said that "people fell over each other... It was difficult to figure out whose leg or arms were tangled with whose."
"I helped pick up eight bodies by the time ambulances arrived after about half an hour," he added.
According to one official, there was a rush to offer special prayers for the New Year, but this was not confirmed by others.
More than 370 Hindus were killed in two stampedes in India in 2008. Furthermore, stampedes in Kerala in 2011 and in Madhya Pradesh two years later each killed more than 100.
