More than 120 killed, mostly women, in India stampede at religious event

The death toll from a stampede at a Hindu religious congregation in northern India has risen to 121, according to the authorities, as a police report said the number of people present at the function was more than triple the permitted capacity.

Most of the victims were women, said Prashant Kumar, the director-general of police in Uttar Pradesh state, where the incident took place on Tuesday in Hathras district.

The dead included 112 women and seven children. Another senior police officer, Shalabh Mathur, said more than 80 people injured in the stampede were admitted to hospitals.

The police’s first information report (FIR) described the chaos when the preacher at the congregation – Surajpal, also known as “Bhole Baba” – was leaving in his car.

Officials are still investigating what triggered the deadly crush, but initial findings suggested massive overcrowding, insufficient exits, bad weather and poor planning as contributing factors.

Some 250,000 people had turned up for the gathering against the permission for 80,000. Moreover, the event was held in a tent in a muddy field.

Forensic workers were scouring the site on Wednesday for evidence, with discarded clothing and shoes scattered all over.

“Everyone – the entire crowd, including women and children – left the event site at once,” said police officer Sheela Maurya, 50, who had been on duty as the preacher delivered a sermon.

“There wasn’t enough space, and everyone just fell on each other.”

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.

Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath called the stampede “heart-wrenching” in a post on X.