Authorities in northern India have reported that a stampede at a religious event claimed the lives of at least 121 people, many of them women and children.
Following the crush at a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district, some 125 miles southeast of the nation’s capital New Delhi, over 80 more people were sent to hospitals.
An official informed India Today that individuals may have been slipping due to “wet mud” at one location and that they may have been seeking water due to the heat.
The event occurred “due to overcrowding at the time when people were trying to leave the venue,” according to Ashish Kumar, the district administration.
Although the event was authorized to accommodate up to 5,000 people, early estimates indicated that over 15,000 people had attended.
The bodies were arranged in cars and placed in the backs of trucks, according to footage obtained by the news agency ANI.