[Source: Reuters]

More than three times the permitted number of people attended a Hindu religious event in northern India that culminated in a stampede which killed at least 121 people, authorities said on Wednesday, adding that most of the victims were women.

About 250,000 people gathered for Tuesday’s event in the Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh state, about 200 km (125 miles) from the Indian capital, New Delhi, despite permission being granted only for 80,000, an initial police report showed.

The preacher at the gathering, Suraj Pal Singh, also known as ‘Bhole Baba’, said in a statement that the stampede was caused by “some anti-social elements” after the event concluded, without elaborating.

Police said they were trying to ascertain the whereabouts of the preacher. A group of devotees had organised the event, according to a poster at the site.

The preacher’s lawyer, A.P. Singh, said Baba had never asked anyone to touch his feet nor did he give anyone the dust touched by his feet, referring to reports in local media which cited these as reasons for the devotees running towards him.

Singh also said Baba’s aides were ready to help those who suffered in the incident.

Most of the deaths resulted from suffocation, said doctors at a district hospital treating several victims. Among the 121 dead were 112 women and seven children, while 31 were injured, state authorities said.

In their First Information Report, police described a scene of chaos when the preacher was leaving in his car.

Thousands of devotees shouted and ran towards the vehicle, crushing others still seated, the report said. Some people were trampled after falling in an adjacent field of slush and mud.

In a letter seen by Reuters, a junior official present at the event told the district administrator that the preacher’s staff had stopped the devotees running towards the car and that many of them had fallen to the ground.

Some had run towards open fields nearby to escape the stampede but slipped and fell in the path of the rest of the crowd, the official added.