At least 116 people killed in crush at religious event in India, say local police

CNN — 

More than a hundred people were killed in a crush at a religious gathering in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, according to local police and administration officials.

The incident happened at a prayer meeting, known as a satsang, in the Mughal Garhi village in the Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh, officials said. The village in India’s most populous state is around 200 kilometers (124 miles) southeast of the capital, New Delhi.

Among the 116 killed were 108 women and seven children, the state’s Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Singh told reporters. About 72 people have been identified so far, he added. At least 18 people were injured.

Local officials have suggested that overcrowding was the cause of the crush, which saw people tumble into a sewer.

Singh told reporters that the organizers of Tuesday’s gathering had filed an application that said “an estimated 80,000 people” were supposed to attend. However, “a lot more people than expected” showed up.

The deadly scenes happened after the event had finished, when a large number of people went “to touch the feet (of the religious figure) or to collect soil from the venue,” as per local tradition. People then began to fall into an open sewer nearby. “People started falling into the sewer and on top of each other,” Singh said.