At least 50 people, including women and children, were killed after a stampede broke out at a satsang event organised by a religious leader Narayan Sarkar in Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, July 2.
According to reports, bodies of 27 people, mostly women, have been recovered and hundreds have fainted. Visuals from the Community Health Centre showed several bodies being brought there in the presence of crying relatives. The death toll is likely to rise.
Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Etah, Umesh Kumar Tripathi said, "We have received 27 bodies, of which 25 are females and two are males. Some injured have also been taken to hospitals. We have heard that there was a stampede during a ‘satsang’ but do not have too many more details."
An eyewitness of the incident told Press Trust of India that people rushing out of the satsang event started falling into an open drain. “After the satsang ended, everyone came out. The road was built on a height with a drain below. One after the other, people started falling into it. Some people got crushed,” she said.
The Uttar Pradesh government has ordered an ex-gratia of ₹2 lakh each to the families of the deceased and ₹50,000 for those injured. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also ordered a probe into the incident. ADG Agra and Commissioner Aligarh will be members of the probe committee. UP Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Singh and DGP Prashant Kumar along with ministers Chaudhary Laxmi Narayan Singh and Sandeep Singh have left for Hathras.
District Magistrate (DM) Ashish Kumar told mediapersons that the administration is investigating the matter. “A high level committee has been formed to investigate the tragedy. At the moment, the primary priority is to provide all the necessary help and assistance to the injured and the families of the deceased,” he said.