<div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><b>Survivors of India's deadliest stampede in over a decade on Wednesday recalled the horror of being crushed at a vastly overcrowded Hindu religious gathering that left 121 people dead.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A police report said more than 250,000 people attended the event in northern India's Uttar Pradesh state, more than triple the 80,000 organisers had permission for.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Wednesday morning, hours after the event, discarded clothing and lost shoes were scattered across the muddy site, an open field alongside a highway.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">People fell on top of each other as they tumbled down a slope into a water-logged ditch, witnesses said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Everyone -- the entire crowd, including women and children -- all left from the event site at once," said police officer Sheela Maurya, 50, who had been on duty Tuesday as a popular Hindu preacher delivered a sermon.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There wasn't enough space, and everyone just fell on top of each other."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Almost all of the dead were women, along with seven children killed and one man.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Officials suggested the stampede was triggered when worshippers tried to gather soil from the footsteps of the preacher, while others blamed a dust storm for sparking panic.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some fainted from the force of the crowd, before falling and being trampled upon, unable to move.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Uttar Pradesh's state disaster management centre, the Office of the Relief Commissioner, released a list of the dead on Wednesday morning.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It said 121 people had been killed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>- 'Crushed' -</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Maurya, who had been on duty since early morning on Tuesday in the sweltering humid heat at the preacher's ceremony, was among the injured.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I tried to help some women, but even I fainted and was crushed under the crowd," she told AFP.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I don't know, but someone pulled me out, and I don't remember much."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Deadly incidents are common at places of worship during major religious festivals in India, the biggest of which prompt millions of devotees to make pilgrimages to holy sites.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The main highway next to the field was packed with people and vehicles for kilometres, there were far too many people here," said Hori Lal, 45, who lives in Phulrai Mughalgadi village, near the site of the stampede.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Once people started falling to the side and getting crushed, there was just chaos."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chaitra V., divisional commissioner of Aligarh city in Uttar Pradesh state, initially said panic began when "attendees were exiting the venue when a dust storm blinded their vision, leading to a melee".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Singh told reporters after visiting the site that worshippers had scrambled to get close to the preacher.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I am told that people rushed to touch his feet and tried to collect soil, and a stampede took place," Singh said, according to the Indian Express daily.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Many people fell in a nearby drain".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Maurya said she had worked at several political rallies and large events in the past but had "never seen such huge numbers".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It was very hot, even I fell there and I survived with great difficulty", she added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>- 'Heart-rending' -</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At dawn on Wednesday, four unidentified bodies lay on the floor of a makeshift morgue at the hospital in the nearby town of Hathras.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ram Nivas, 35, a farmer, said he was searching for his sister-in-law Rumla, 54, who was missing after the crush.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We haven't been able to find her anywhere," Nivas said, adding he had visited all the nearby hospitals throughout the night.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We just hope she's still alive," he said quietly. "Maybe just lost."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the hospital's emergency ward, Sandeep Kumar, 29, sat next to his injured sister, Shikha Kumar, 22.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"After the event ended, everyone wanted to exit quickly, and that is what led to the stampede," Sandeep said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"She saw people fainting, getting crushed."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced compensation of $2,400 to the next of kin of those who died and $600 to those injured in the "tragic incident".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">President Droupadi Murmu said the deaths were "heart-rending" and offered her "deepest condolences".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who is also a Hindu monk, expressed his condolences to the relatives of those killed and ordered an investigation into the deaths, his office said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Religious gatherings in India have a grim track record of deadly incidents caused by poor crowd management and safety lapses.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">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.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>