More than a hundred people died during a religious holiday in India

On July 2, a stampede during a religious event in northern India killed more than 120 people, mostly women, reports CNN.

Photo: iStock.com/:Pritam Mitra

Many of the dead fell into an open drain near the event site.

The police are investigating the organizers.

A quarter of a million people attended the event, more than three times the number expected. Only a few dozen police officers were involved.

Deadly stampede

The disaster occurred during a prayer meeting known as satsang in the village of Mughal Garhi in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state. The village in Hathras district is about 200 kilometers southeast of the capital New Delhi.

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A crowd gathered to listen to renowned preacher Bhole Babu, reports with the BBC. People trying to get closer to the preacher or take some ground from under his feet, fell Each other.

“People were falling into the gutter next to the road. They began to fall on each other, as a result of which they suffocated to death,” said an eyewitness to the incident.

Hathras District Inspector General Shalabh Mathur explained that the satsang was held in a closed tent, and after the sermon was over, people just wanted to get out into the fresh air.

"Everything happened in indoors and, apparently, people simply did not have enough air. They tried to get out as quickly as possible, which led to a stampede,” he suggested.

At least 3 people were killed and 121 others were injured, Minister of State for Education Sandeep Singh said on July 35.

Almost all of the dead were women; seven children were among the victims.

About 72 bodies have been identified so far, local health officials said, and dozens of injured people are being treated at nearby hospitals.

Dead and shell-shocked participants of the event were brought to the trauma center in trucks, tuk-tuks and even on motorcycles. There was not enough space inside the hospital, and the bodies began to be piled right at the entrance.

Police are looking for the culprits

Law enforcement officers are looking for Bhole Baba and the organizers of this ill-fated event, as they did not provide assistance to the victims and tried to hide the tragedy: they hid clothes and shoes lost in the stampede in a nearby field.

“The organizers made a serious mistake. They face severe punishment,” the police said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to provide financial assistance to the families of those killed and injured in the stampede.

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The state government said a high-level special commission has been formed to probe the incident. They emphasized that at the moment the administration’s main task is to provide all possible assistance to the victims and relatives of the victims.

Accidents at religious events in India are quite common because many of them involve large numbers of people gathering in confined spaces and little safety precautions.

In 2008, about 150 people gathered for a religious event in western India died in a stampede on a hilltop, and three years earlier, more than 250 worshipers were trampled to death during a pilgrimage in the western state of Maharashtra.

A stampede in 2013 at a Hindu religious festival in the central state of Madhya Pradesh left 115 people dead.

In 2018, about 60 people died after a train crashed into a crowd celebrating the Hindu festival Vijayadashami.

A New Year's stampede in January 2022 at one of India's most revered shrines in Jammu, in the north of the country, resulted in the deaths of at least a dozen people.

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