“HEART-RENDING”
Four unidentified bodies lay on the floor of a makeshift morgue at the hospital in the nearby town of Hathras at dawn on Wednesday.
Ram Nivas, 35, a farmer, said he was searching for his sister-in-law Rumla, 54, who was missing after the crush.
“We haven’t been able to find her anywhere,” Nivas said after he had visited all the nearby hospitals throughout the night.
“We just hope she’s still alive,” he said quietly. “Maybe just lost.”
In the hospital’s emergency ward, Sandeep Kumar, 29, sat beside his injured sister, Shikha Kumar, 22.
“Everyone wanted to exit quickly, and that is what led to the stampede,” Sandeep said.
“She saw people fainting, getting crushed.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced compensation of US$2,400 for the next of kin of those killed and US$600 for those injured in the “tragic incident”.
President Droupadi Murmu said the deaths were “heart-rending”.
Religious gatherings in India have a grim track record of deadly incidents caused by poor crowd management and safety lapses.
In 2008, 224 pilgrims were killed and more than 400 were injured in a stampede at a hilltop temple in the northern city of Jodhpur.
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