[:en]NEWS DESK
LUCKNOW, India: At a religious gathering in India thousands of people rushed to leave a makeshift tent, setting off a stampede Tuesday that claimed more than 100 lives and left many injured, officials said.
It was not clear what caused the panic following an event with Hindu figure Bhole Baba. Local media cited authorities who said heat and suffocation in the tent might have been a cause.
At least 116 people died, of which most were women and children, said Prashant Kumar, the director-general of police in northern India’s state of Uttar Pradesh, where the stampede occurred.
Around 80 others were wounded and admitted to hospitals, senior police official Shalabh Mathur said.
Witness Shakuntala Devi told the Press Trust of India news agency. that people started falling one upon another, one upon another. Those who were crushed died. People there pulled them out.
Relatives crying 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 reached the spot carried more victims, whose bodies were lying on the seats inside.
THE DEADLY stampedes are relatively common around Indian religious festivals, where large number of people gather in small areas with inferior quality of infrastructure and few safety measures.
Police officer Rajesh Singh said there was likely overcrowding at the event in a village in Hathras district about 350 kilometers (220 miles) southwest of the state capital, Lucknow.
Initial reports suggested that over 15,000 people had gathered for the event, which had permission to host about 5,000.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has offered condolences to the families of the dead and said the federal government was working with authorities to ensure the injured received adequate help.[:]