Severe overcrowding, lack of exits and mud contributed to a deadly stampede in India

HATHRAS, India (AP) — Severe overcrowding and a lack of exits contributed to a stampede at a religious festival in northern India, authorities said Wednesday, leaving at least 121 people dead as the faithful surged toward the preacher to touch him and chaos ensued.

Five of those died on Wednesday morning, local official Manish Chaudhry said, and 28 people were still being treated in a hospital.

Deadly stampedes are relatively common at Indian religious festivals, where large crowds gather in small areas with shoddy infrastructure and few safety measures.

Some quarter of a million people turned up for the event Tuesday that was permitted to accommodate only 80,000. It’s not clear how many made it inside the giant tent set up in a muddy field in a village in Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh state.

It was also not clear what sparked the panic. But the state’s chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, told reporters that a crowd rushed toward the preacher to touch him as he was descending from the stage, and volunteers struggled to intervene.

An initial report from the police suggested that thousands of people then thronged the exits, and many slipped on the muddy ground, causing them to fall and be crushed in the crowd. Most of the dead were women.

The chaos appeared to continue outside the tent also as followers again ran toward the preacher, a Hindu guru known locally as Bhole Baba, as he left in a vehicle. His security personnel pushed the crowd back, causing more people to fall, according to officials.

Authorities are investigating and searching for the preacher as well as other organizers, whose whereabouts are not known.

Adityanath said he ordered an inquiry by a retired judge into Tuesday’s deaths.

Police registered a case of