Name: At least 100 killed in crush at India religious event | BBC News
Uploaded: 2024-07-03T02:22:37.000Z
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More than 90 people have been killed in a crush at a religious gathering in northern India.

Many of the victims are women and children.

A large number of people are being treated in hospital, and there are fears that casualties may rise.

Officials in the state of Uttar Pradesh say thousands had gathered in the city of Hathras for a prayer meeting led by a Hindu preacher.

What triggered the rush isn't clear, but reports from the area suggest that a factor may have been the hot and humid conditions inside a tent that had been set up for the meeting.

Well, let's speak now to the BBC Hindi correspondent Jugal Prohit, who's in Delhi for us.

Jugal, there is a bit of uncertainty at this stage over the numbers, isn't there?

Well, what we've been told by the local authorities, the senior most police officer there, is that the number has now crossed 100.

The injured, the bodies, they've all been distributed across four to five districts from that area because the sheer volume of those who are affected is so huge right now that the single district where it has happened isn't having adequate infrastructure, and people are being asked to go to different hospitals at this point.

Not much, unfortunately, is known about just what went wrong.

We are told that the authorities are conducting a high-level inquiry into what happened.

But the basics of the incident that we know so far is that it was a religious gathering, which was continuing, as you were mentioning.

There were thousands of people who had gathered from different parts of the state to arrive at that.

And it was towards the culmination of this religious gathering that this stampede seems to have broken out.

I can also share that there are horrifying images on social media, which tell us about the state in which the situation is.

We also heard several angry relatives of those who passed away, who blamed the authorities for mismanagement, who blamed the authorities for inadequate care at hospitals.

There are reports that many of these family members had to transport their loved ones through their own vehicle as well.

What we also understand from the local administration, where two senior ministers have been deputed to oversee the relief and rescue work, is that this number is likely to go up further.

The parliament, in fact, was in session when this happened.

And right from the prime minister to the leader of opposition to the president of India, they've all commented on this, expressing their sadness and anguish.

Yes, a distressing time for the families of those affected.

Now, given that at the moment, a suggested factor that may have caused it was the conditions inside the tent that had been set up for that meeting.

What safety regulations are there, for a gathering of this number of people?

Well, so this was a private religious gathering.

What we understand is that the responsibility for inside the main tent where the gathering was, was with the person who was organising.

It was a local godman, is what we understand.

And the arrangements outside were supposed to be made by the local authorities.

It does also seem that the event actually had the right permissions for this.

But what isn't clear is whether there were adequate arrangements for the kind of crowd that arrived at that place.

This is something that an inquiry will tell us.

But yes, as I said, the permission was granted for the event.

And at a time like this, when there is, you know, humidity, the temperatures are very high, obviously, when a crowd of thousands of people has arrived from different parts of a district, arrangements ought to be in place.

As I said, several relatives are now directly pointing fingers at the administration, saying that there was just no help whatsoever when they were looking for it.

 Our correspondent, Jugal Parohit in Delhi Forest, thank you.