Ashish Kumar, district magistrate of Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh, a state in northern India, told local television reporters that the “incident took place when people were leaving the congregation due to excess stuffiness toward the end of the event.”
The district’s inspector general, Shalabh Mathur, told television reporters that 116 people died in the stampede.
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The temperature in the area hit 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and humidity levels reached 77 percent, pushing the heat index past 110.
The religious congregation was led by a local Hindu preacher in a tented, open-air venue with women packed together singing and waving their hands above their heads, according to videos of the scene and descriptions of the event by eyewitnesses to local media outlets.
Eyewitnesses told television reporters that the stampede broke out when the preacher was leaving the venue. Devotees rushed toward the exit to get a closer view of him while many were prostrated on the ground to seek his blessings, they said.
Chaitra V, a senior local official who oversees the districts where the stampede took place, told the Aaj Tak news channel that while there was adequate space at the event and the proper permits had been obtained, people got “stuck in the sludge” while they fled the venue toward “a source of water to save themselves from the heat.”
The injured and dead were taken to hospitals in Hathras and neighboring Etah district.
Speaking from the hospital in Etah district, Bablu Kumar said both his aunts were caught in the stampede. The 38-year-old and his brother rushed from their village two hours away but got trapped in a traffic jam leading into the area.
When they reached the scene, they immediately found the body of one aunt but were still frantically searching for the second among the rows of bodies.
“There are lines of bodies, numbered. There is no one to explain what happened,” he told The Washington Post in a telephone interview. “Why did they allow so many people to gather if they didn’t have the appropriate facilities? It’s a bad situation here. The government should never let this happen again.”
The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, expressed condolences for the victims in a post on X. “Instructions have been given to the concerned officials to conduct relief and rescue operations … and to provide proper treatment to the injured,” he wrote.
He also announced a compensation of $2,400 for the families of the deceased and $600 for each person injured.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi interrupted a speech to Parliament to address the incident, saying: “I want to assure everyone that the victims will be helped in every possible way.”
But Dinesh, who goes by one name, said the government can’t do anything about the loss of his mother, as he prepared to take her body back from the site. Two of his other relatives who sustained minor injuries at the event were traveling back with him.
His mother, Meera Devi, began traveling to see the preacher over the last year, but Dinesh said he had been concerned this event in particular would be too crowded, given the sizable local advertising.
“I told her not to go in the morning, but she didn’t listen,” he said. “I don’t even know if 50 people ran over her or 100.”
The event was hosted by a local preacher named Narayan Sakar Hari, whose name translates to god incarnate. In videos from past congregations, he is seen on a thronelike seat wearing a suit and tie, explaining his ostensibly miraculous powers.
“I go to temples, churches and mosques. I go wherever people seek me,” he said in one video. In another, he rolls his eyes backward, throws his microphone offstage and lifts up one palm toward his devotees.
The stampede is among India’s deadliest in recent years; fatal crushes often occur at religious events and political rallies here. A stampede at an event at temple in India in 2013 killed at least 110 people.
This summer in India has seen record-breaking heat, killing almost 100 people so far, including election officials, according to Reuters. Northern India has been hit particularly hard, with peak summer temperatures here soaring past 120 degrees.
Pietsch reported from Washington.
