At least 107 people were crushed to death at a Hindu religious gathering in northern India on Tuesday, with many others injured, according to a senior government official. The incident occurred near the city of Hathras when a large crowd had gathered for a sermon by a popular preacher, and a fierce dust storm sparked panic as people were leaving. Many were trampled or fell into a roadside drain in the chaos, with Chaitra V., the divisional commissioner of Aligarh city, stating that the storm blinded the attendees' vision, leading to a melee.
Efforts are now focused on providing relief and medical aid for the victims, with the toll having surged past a hundred. Most of the dead were women, and many injured have been hospitalized, according to state chief medical officer Umesh Kumar Tripathi. Deadly incidents at places of worship during major religious festivals are common in India, where millions of devotees often make pilgrimages to holy sites.
Lines of ambulances rushed the injured to hospitals, while wailing relatives gathered outside a mortuary in the town of Etah, seeking news of their loved ones. Witnesses described how the panic ensued when the sermon ended, causing people to fall into a drain by the road and get crushed to death. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences on social media and provided compensation for the families. He also hoped for the injured to recover quickly.
President Droupadi Murmu expressed her sympathies, calling the deaths "heartbreaking". Yogi Adityanath, Uttar Pradesh's chief minister and a Hindu priest, urged authorities to hasten rescue operations and launched an inquiry into the event. India has a long history of horrific catastrophes during religious gatherings caused by a lack of proper crowd control and safety measures.
A 2008 stampede at a hilltop temple in Jodhpur left 224 people dead, a 2013 stampede at a bridge near a Madhya Pradesh temple killed 115 worshippers, and an explosion at a Kerala temple in 2016 claimed 112 lives. These occurrences bring to light the continuous difficulties India has in organizing sizable religious gatherings.
