A look at stampedes and crowd disasters in India over the years
Written by on July 2, 2024
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More than 100 people were killed in a stampede Tuesday in northern India following a Hindu religious gathering, making it one of the deadliest such accidents in recent years.
Thousands had gathered at a makeshift tent for a religious event led by a Hindu preacher in Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh state. The victims were crushed to death as they rushed to leave. Video of the aftermath showed the structure appeared to have collapsed, and authorities said heat, overcrowding and suffocation may have been factors.
Here’s a look at other major stampedes in India over the past two decades:
A crowd surge at a popular Hindu shrine in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed at least 12 people and injured 15 on New Year’s Day 2022. The crush occurred at the Mata Vaishnav Devi shrine, where tens of thousands of Hindus had gathered to pay respects.
A stampede on a crowded pedestrian bridge connecting two Mumbai railway stations killed 22 people and injured 32 during the morning rush on Sept. 29, 2017. Police said some commuters leaped over the railing while others were crushed or fell underfoot and were trampled.
At least 24 people were killed and 20 injured in a stampede on Oct. 15, 2016, as they crossed a crowded bridge to reach a Hindu religious ceremony in northern India. The stampede took place on the outskirts of Varanasi, a city in Uttar Pradesh known for its temples. Organizers had expected 3,000 devotees at the ceremony, but more than 70,000 thronged the ashram of a local Hindu leader on the banks of the Ganges River.
Tens of thousands of pilgrims taking part in a Hindu religious bathing festival surged forward and triggered a massive stampede on a riverbank in southern India, leaving at least 27 dead and dozens injured. The stampede along the Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh on July 14, 2015, was triggered by some pilgrims who tried to retrieve their shoes, which had fallen off when they first made their way to the riverbank.
A collapsing bridge caused a stampede that killed 115 people, mostly women and children, on Oct. 13, 2013. They were among hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who had come to the Hindu temple in the remote town of Ratangarh in Madhya Pradesh state on the last day of the popular 10-day Navaratri festival.
Some 36 people were killed on Feb. 10, 2013, in a stampede in a train station in the northern India city of Allahabad, where millions of Hindu devotees had gathered for Kumbh Mela — or Pitcher Festival — one of the world’s largest religious gatherings. Tens of thousands of people were in the city’s main rail station waiting to board a train when railway officials announced a last-minute change in the platform, forcing people to rush there, eyewitnesses said.
At least 168 people were killed and 100 injured when thousands of pilgrims stampeded at a Hindu temple in Jodhpur on Sept. 30, 2008. Severe overcrowding apparently caused the crush as more than 12,000 people gathered at the temple to celebrate Navratra, a Hindu festival.
Dozens of women and children were among 145 people who died on Aug. 3, 2008, when thousands of pilgrims stampeded at a remote mountaintop temple in northern India during celebrations to honor Shakrti, a Hindu goddess. The devotees were attending a nine-day religious festival at the Naina Devi Temple in the Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh state. Rumors of a landslide apparently started the panic, according to a senior government official.
A stampede during a religious procession to a hilltop temple on Jan. 25, 2005, killed at least 258 people and injured 200 in western India, near the village of Wai, some 150 miles (241 kilometers) south of Bombay, in Satara district. The stampede was triggered after several Hindu pilgrims inside the temple fell on a slippery floor and were crushed to death by other pilgrims who apparently walked on them. Angered over the deaths, some pilgrims started a fire that gutted hundreds of makeshift shops along a narrow walkway leading to the temple and set off the deadly rush.
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