A stampede that killed dozens at a south India political rally happened after a crowd of thousands waited hours in baking heat without sufficient safeguards, officials and witnesses said yesterday.
About 27,000 people thronged a public road in Tamil Nadu state in hopes of seeing popular actor-turned-politician Vijay on Saturday night, but panic broke out and 39 were killed, authorities said.
Witnesses cited hours of delays, insufficient police presence and people falling from a tree branch onto the audience as contributing to the tragedy.
Photo: AFP
Deadly crowd incidents happen repeatedly during mass gatherings in India, often blamed on lax safety measures. Vijay, known by one name, was addressing the rally when the crowds surged suddenly, forcing him to halt his speech in Karur district. Videos on social media showed him tossing water bottles to supporters shortly before the panic broke out.
“My heart is shattered at this tragedy,” the 51-year-old star said in a statement.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin told reporters yesterday that 39 people had died, raising an earlier toll of 36.
Nine children were among the dead, he added, announcing a judicial enquiry into the disaster.
State police chief G. Venkataraman said crowds had been waiting for hours under hot sun without sufficient food and water after the public was informed that Vijay would arrive at the venue by noon.
“The crowds started coming in from 11am. He came at 7:40pm. The people lacked sufficient food and water under the hot sun,” he told reporters.
He added 10,000 people were expected but some 27,000 turned up.
Vijay launched his own party last year and has drawn huge crowds at campaign events ahead of state elections due next year.
“I was pushed down by the crowd all of a sudden. There was absolutely no space to move,” B. Kanishka, a survivor, told the Hindu newspaper. “I subsequently fainted.”
Others said poor organization and an hours-long wait left people restless before the situation spiraled dangerously out of control.
Karthick, a survivor, told the publication that the situation could have been prevented “if people were not forced to wait for hours together.”
“Poor planning and execution of the program, and lack of police personnel at the spot were also the reason,” he said.
The Indian Express newspaper said panic spread after supporters who had climbed onto a tree branch fell onto the crowd below.
In January, 30 people were killed in a crush at a major religious fair, and last year 121 died during a Hindu prayer meeting in Uttar Pradesh.
REVENGE: Trump said he had the support of the Syrian government for the strikes, which took place in response to an Islamic State attack on US soldiers last week The US launched large-scale airstrikes on more than 70 targets across Syria, the Pentagon said on Friday, fulfilling US President Donald Trump’s vow to strike back after the killing of two US soldiers. “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on social media. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.” The US Central Command said that fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery targeted ISIS infrastructure and weapon sites. “All terrorists who are evil enough to attack Americans are hereby warned
The death of a former head of China’s one-child policy has been met not by tributes, but by castigation of the abandoned policy on social media this week. State media praised Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), former head of China’s National Family Planning Commission from 1988 to 1998, as “an outstanding leader” in her work related to women and children. The reaction on Chinese social media to Peng’s death in Beijing on Sunday, just shy of her 96th birthday, was less positive. “Those children who were lost, naked, are waiting for you over there” in the afterlife, one person posted on China’s Sina Weibo platform. China’s
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
Seven wild Asiatic elephants were killed and a calf was injured when a high-speed passenger train collided with a herd crossing the tracks in India’s northeastern state of Assam early yesterday, local authorities said. The train driver spotted the herd of about 100 elephants and used the emergency brakes, but the train still hit some of the animals, Indian Railways spokesman Kapinjal Kishore Sharma told reporters. Five train coaches and the engine derailed following the impact, but there were no human casualties, Sharma said. Veterinarians carried out autopsies on the dead elephants, which were to be buried later in the day. The accident site
RSS