Stampede at Religious Gathering in India Kills More Than 100 

More than 100 people were killed on Tuesday and many others were injured in a stampede during a Hindu religious event in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where thousands of devotees had gathered.

Most of the dead so far have been women and children who appeared to have suffocated in a crush, in the Hathras district, said Ashish Kumar, the district magistrate there.

“As of now, the confirmed death toll is 116 people,” said Chaitra V., a top civil servant in the Aligarh administrative region, which includes Hathras.

Local officials suggested that heat and overcrowding had set off a panic; temperatures in Hathras on Tuesday approached 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with very high humidity. Eyewitnesses, speaking to local news media, said some of the victims had fallen into a drainage ditch on top of one another.

The event, a large Hindu prayer meeting, was organized by a guru locally known as Bhole Baba as well as Sakar Vishwa Hari, who has been leading such gatherings for more than two decades. The crush took place in late afternoon, at the end of the meeting, which was held under a large tent.