People assemble outside the emergency department of an Etah hospital. Photo: Reuters
Not less than 87 people have been killed while many injured in a stampede during a religious event in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where thousands of devotees had gathered, local police said.
It was reported that most of the dead so far were women and children who appeared to have suffocated in a rush to leave the venue. Local officials suggested that heat and overcrowding had sparked a panic.
“Toward the end of the congregation, when devotees were leaving, this incident took place because of very high humidity,” Ashish Kumar, the district magistrate in Hathras the place of the incident, said.
Umesh Kumar Tripathi, a medical officer in the neighbouring district of Etah, in western Uttar Pradesh, said more victims were being brought to other hospitals.
“The death toll may rise,” Mr. Tripathi said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was speaking at India’s Parliament when news of the incident came in, said the “administration is engaged in relief and rescue work.”
“I assure everyone through this House that the victims will be helped in every way,” he said.
Unverified videos on social media showed a large number of dead bodies, mostly women, in the courtyard of what looks like a government building.
The event, a large Hindu prayer meeting, was organized by a guru locally known as Bhole Baba who has been leading such gatherings for more than two decades. The commotion took place at the end of the meeting.
Rajesh Singh, a police officer in Hathras, said a permit for the event had allowed for 5,000 people. But initial information from the scene indicated that the crowd was much larger than that, he said in a telephone interview. More than 150 people have been admitted to different hospitals, he said.
In India, deadly stampedes with mass casualties during religious pilgrimages are common because of poor enforcement of public safety measures. In recent years, the authorities have increased surveillance of large religious gatherings by deploying more police officers and using drones.
“Both the state and federal governments have failed to develop a sensitive approach toward crowd management. As a nation we are good at drawing crowds but not good at managing them,” Manoj Kumar Jha, a member of India’s Parliament, said. “Every year, these kinds of incidents keep repeating themselves, and we learn nothing.”
印度當地警方稱，一場宗教活動發生踩踏事件，造成至少87人死亡、多人受傷
當地警方稱，印度北部北方邦舉行宗教活動期間發生踩踏事件，數千名信徒聚集在那裡，造成至少 87 人死亡，多人受傷。
據報道，到目前為止，大多數死者是婦女和兒童，他們似乎是在離開會場時被擠壓窒息而死的。 當地官員表示，炎熱和過度擁擠引發了恐慌。
事發地哈特拉斯地區法官阿什什·庫馬爾 (Ashish Kumar) 表示：“在集會結束時，當信徒們離開時，由於濕度非常高，發生了這起事件。”
北方邦西部埃塔附近地區的一名醫務人員烏梅什·庫馬爾·特里帕蒂表示，更多的受害者正在被送往其他醫院。
「死亡人數可能會上升，」特里帕蒂先生說。
事件消息傳出後，印度總理莫迪在印度議會發表講話，他表示「政府正在進行救援工作」。
他說：“我通過眾議院向大家保證，受害者將得到各方面的幫助。”
社群媒體上未經證實的影片顯示，在看似政府大樓的庭院裡有大量屍體，其中大部分是女性。
這次活動是一場大型印度教祈禱會，由當地一位名叫博勒巴巴 (Bhole Baba) 的大師組織，他二十多年來一直領導此類聚會。 騷亂發生在會議結束時。
哈特拉斯 (Hathras) 警官拉傑什辛格 (Rajesh Singh) 表示，該活動的許可證允許 5,000 人參加。 但他在接受電話採訪時表示，現場的初步資訊表明，人群遠不止於此。 他說，已有 150 多人被送往不同的醫院。
在印度，由於公共安全措施執行不力，宗教朝聖期間造成大規模傷亡的致命踩踏事件屢見不鮮。 近年來，當局透過部署更多警力和使用無人機加強了對大型宗教集會的監控。
「州政府和聯邦政府都未能針對人群管理制定敏感的方法。 作為一個國家，我們擅長吸引人群，但不擅長管理人群，」印度議會議員 Manoj Kumar Jha 表示。 “每年，此類事件不斷重演，但我們卻一無所獲。”
Source: NYT
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