ARUN SANKAR/AFP
Survivors of India's deadliest stampede in over a decade on Wednesday recalled the horror of being crushed at a vastly overcrowded Hindu religious gathering that left 121 people dead.
A police report said more than 250,000 people attended the event in northern India's Uttar Pradesh state, more than triple the 80,000 organisers had permission for.
On Wednesday morning, hours after the event, discarded clothing and lost shoes were scattered across the muddy site, an open field alongside a highway.
People fell on top of each other as they tumbled down a slope into a water-logged ditch, witnesses said.
"Everyone, the entire crowd, including women and children, all left from the event site at once," said police officer Sheela Maurya, 50, who had been on duty Tuesday as a popular Hindu preacher delivered a sermon.
"There wasn't enough space, and everyone just fell on top of each other."
Almost all of the dead were women, along with seven children and one man.
Officials suggested the stampede was triggered when worshippers tried to gather soil from the footsteps of the preacher, while others blamed a dust storm for sparking panic.
Some fainted from the force of the crowd, before falling and being trampled upon, unable to move.
The Uttar Pradesh's state disaster management centre, the Office of the Relief Commissioner, released a list of the dead on Wednesday morning.
It said 121 people had been killed.
Deadly incidents are common at places of worship during major religious festivals in India, the biggest of which prompt millions of devotees to make pilgrimages to holy sites.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who is also a Hindu monk, expressed his condolences to the relatives of those killed and ordered an investigation into the deaths, his office said.
Religious gatherings in India have a grim track record of deadly incidents caused by poor crowd management and safety lapses.
In 2008, 224 pilgrims were killed and more than 400 were injured in a stampede at a hilltop temple in the northern city of Jodhpur.
© Agence France-Presse
