More than 100 killed after stampede at religious event in northern India
A stampede among thousands of people at a religious gathering in northern India has killed at least 105 and left scores injured, officials said Tuesday, with many women and children among the dead.
Attendees had rushed to leave the makeshift tent following an event with Hindu figure Bhole Baba, local media reported. They cited authorities who said heat and suffocation inside could have been a factor. Video of the aftermath showed that the structure appeared to have collapsed. Women wailed over the dead.
Senior police officer Shalabh Mathur in Uttar Pradesh state confirmed that 105 people had died while 84 others were injured and admitted to hospitals.
Deadly stampedes are relatively common around Indian religious festivals, where large crowds gather in small areas with shoddy infrastructure and few safety measures.
Police officer Rajesh Singh said there was likely overcrowding at the event in a village in Hathras district, about 350 kilometres southwest of the state capital, Lucknow.
Initial reports suggested that more than 15,000 people had gathered for the event, which had permission to host about 5,000.
“People started falling one upon another, one upon another. Those who were crushed died. People there pulled them out,” witness Shakuntala Devi told the Press Trust of India news agency.
Bodies were brought to hospitals and morgues by trucks and private vehicles, government official Matadin Saroj said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered condolences to the families of the dead and said the federal government was working with state authorities to ensure the injured received help.
Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, called the stampede “extremely sad and heart-wrenching” in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter. He said authorities were investigating the cause.
In 2013, pilgrims visiting a temple for a popular Hindu festival in central Madhya Pradesh state trampled each other amid fears that a bridge would collapse. At least 115 were crushed to death or died in the river.
In 2011, more than 100 Hindu devotees died in a crush at a religious festival in the southern state of Kerala.
Published at Tue, 02 Jul 2024 13:43:29 +0000
At least 9 reported killed after Israeli military orders Khan Younis evacuation
An Israeli strike has killed at least nine people in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, Palestinian health officials said Tuesday, within a day of Israel ordering the evacuation of parts of the city ahead of a likely ground operation.
The overnight strike hit a home near the European Hospital, which is inside the zone that Israel said should be evacuated. After the initial evacuation orders, the military said the facility itself was not included, and its director said most patients and medics have already been relocated.
The Israeli military said its forces had struck areas in Khan Younis from where around 20 rockets had been fired on Monday. Targets included weapon storage facilities and operational centres, it added.
It said measures were taken before the strikes to ensure civilians were unharmed by enabling them to evacuate from the area, referring to the evacuation orders. The military accused Hamas of using civilian infrastructure and the wider population as human shields. The Islamist group denies that.
Sam Rose, the director of planning at the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said Tuesday that the agency believes some 250,000 people are in the evacuation zone of Khan Younis — over 10 per cent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million — including many who have fled earlier fighting.
He says another 50,000 people living just outside the zone may also choose to leave because of their proximity to the fighting. Evacuees have been told to seek refuge in a sprawling tent camp along the coast that is already overcrowded and has few basic services.
The Israeli military says two of its soldiers have been killed and a third soldier was severely wounded fighting in central Gaza. It did not provide details of the battle in a statement issued Tuesday.
The Islamic Jihad militant group said it shelled Israeli supply lines Monday in the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza. The army carved out the corridor, which stretches from the border to the sea, early on in the war to sever northern Gaza from the south.
It was not possible to independently confirm battlefield reports from either side.
The military says 674 soldiers have been killed since the start of the war in Gaza, more than half of them in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack that triggered the fighting.
Over a million Palestinians fled the southern city of Rafah in May, after Israel launched operations there. Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to areas of Gaza where they had previously operated. Palestinians and aid groups say nowhere in the territory feels safe.
Israel began its military campaign in Gaza last October after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and abducted about 250.
Since then, Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 37,900 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. The war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and basic goods to Gaza, and people there are now totally dependent on aid. The top UN court has concluded there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza — a charge Israel strongly denies.
Speaking to members of the National Security College, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he believes Hamas is close to being eliminated in Gaza, and Israel remains committed to eradicating the remains of its forces.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said Israel was nearing its goal of destroying the military capabilities of Hamas, which has governed Gaza since 2007. Less intense operations would continue, he said.
“We are advancing to the end of the phase of eliminating the terrorist army of Hamas, and there will be a continuation to strike its remnants,” Netanyahu said.
Published at Tue, 02 Jul 2024 10:47:46 +0000
