Over 50 people killed in UP stampede

Hathras (UP): Over 50 people were killed and several injured in a stampede at a religious congregation here on Tuesday, officials said. Devotees suffocated to their deaths and bodies piled atop each other in the stampede – among the biggest such tragedies in recent years - that took place at a ‘satsang’ in the district’s Phulrai village.

Many bodies were brought to neighboring Etah district. “Twenty-seven bodies have arrived in Etah hospital. Among those killed are 23 women, three children and a man.” Senior Superintendent of Police Rajesh Kumar Singh said initially. But updates put the toll much higher. Based on hospital accounts, a district official said 50 to 60 people were killed. Unconfirmed reports said the toll was even higher.

Victims, dead or unconscious, were brought to the Sikandara Rao Trauma Centre in trucks and ‘tempos’. The bodies lay outside the health centre as people milled around them. One video clip showed a woman crying, sitting among five or six bodies in a truck. Another showed a man and a woman lying lifeless in another vehicle. An eyewitness Shakuntala Devi said Videos that the stampede took place while people were leaving the venue at the end of the ‘satsang’, which was a day-long affair.