At least 116 people, many of them women and children, were killed in a stampede at a Hindu religious gathering in northern India on Tuesday, authorities said, in one of the country's worst such tragedies in years.
The stampede happened in a village in Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh, about 200 kilometers southeast of the national capital New Delhi, where authorities said thousands had gathered in sweltering late afternoon temperatures.
The stampede occurred when a crowd of devotees started pushing toward the stage after the event to touch the preacher, who was coming down, said Yogi Adityanath, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state.
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