At least 116 people have been killed in a stampede after a Hindu religious gathering in northern India, government officials said, calling it the worst such tragedy in more than a decade. A large crowd had gathered near the town of Hathras to hear a sermon from a well-known preacher, but as they were walking home a sandstorm hit them, causing panic. Many worshippers fell on top of each other and were crushed or trampled, while others fell into a drainage ditch in the chaos. It appeared there were “more people than were authorised” at the gathering, according to senior police official Shalabh Mathur.
Religious gatherings in India have a grim record of fatalities caused by poor crowd management and security lapses. At least 112 people were killed in 2016 when a massive explosion caused by a banned fireworks display at a temple celebrating the Hindu New Year tore through concrete buildings and sparked a fire at a temple complex in Kerala state where thousands of people had gathered.
Another 115 devotees were killed in 2013 in a stampede on a bridge near a temple in Madhya Pradesh. As many as 400,000 people gathered in the area, and the stampede began after rumors spread that the bridge was about to collapse. In 2008, 224 pilgrims were killed and more than 400 injured in a stampede at a hilltop temple in the northern city of Jodhpur.
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