PHULRAI MUGHAL GARHI, India – More than three times the permitted number of people attended a Hindu religious event in north India that culminated in a stampede, killing at least 121 people, authorities said on Wednesday, adding that most of the victims were women.
About 250,000 people gathered for Tuesday’s event in the Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh state, about 200km (125 miles) from the Indian capital, New Delhi, despite permission being granted only for 80,000, an initial police report showed.
Most of the deaths resulted from suffocation, said doctors at a district hospital treating several victims.
“The injured are fewer because … if you get caught in a stampede, the injuries will mostly be fractures, scratches, or body pain, so most people got up and left,” said Neeta Jain, who is in charge of its emergency ward.
Among the 121 dead were 112 women and seven children, while 31 were injured, according to state authorities.
In their First Information Report, police described a scene of chaos when the preacher at the event, Suraj Pal Singh, also known as ‘Bhole Baba’, was leaving in his car.
Thousands of devotees in the congregation shouted and ran towards the car, crushing others still seated, the report said. Some people were trampled after falling in an adjacent field of slush and mud.
District police officials were not immediately available for comment.
