Crush at India religious event kills more than 120, mostly women

A crowd crush at a religious gathering in northern India killed more than a hundred people Tuesday, mostly women, in one of the deadliest such incidents the country has seen in recent years.. ..

Police are investigating the organizers, saying a quarter of a million people arrived at the venue - more than three times the number expected - and just a few dozen police officers had been deployed.. ..

Police have been on the hunt for Bhole Baba since the deadly incident and have accused the events organizers of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, wrongfully restraining a person, causing disappearance of evidence or providing false information, according to a police report seen by CNN.. . Permission was sought for the event with 80,000 attendees, however a crowd of more than 250,000 devotees gathered, the report said.. . Organizers and officials tried to direct the crowd as thousands attempted to leave and in the ensuing chaos dozens were trampled, it added..

The deadly scenes unfolded after the event had finished, when Bhole Babas devotees rushed toward the stage to touch his feet, according to chief secretary Singh, who described scenes of chaos as people began to fall on top of each other and into an open sewer nearby.. ..

In 2008, nearly 150 people who had gathered for a religious event in western India died in a hilltop crowd crush, and three years prior, more than 250 people were trampled to death during a pilgrimage in the western state of Maharashtra.. ..

You might be interested in