HATHRAS: A day after a stampede claimed the lives of at least 121 people in Western UP’s Hathras district, survivors recovering at the Hathras District Hospital recounted their ordeal.
Sixty-two-year old Kusum Devi, who attended the Satsang, recounted that things had gone well till the very end. “When we tried to walk towards the exit after the aarti, the situation suddenly turned chaotic. People started pushing and pulling each other in all directions. I fell down and people started walking over me. A few people helped me and I managed to survive,” she said.
Her sister, who was accompanying her, sadly could not make it and passed away late on Tuesday.
Among the survivors at the hospital was head constable Sheela Mohday who was on duty when the stampede broke out. In an effort to control the crowd, she was injured.
At the hospital’s mortuary, Rao Dayal was waiting impatiently to identify the bodies of his sister and two nephews, aged 11 and 9, who had been missing since Tuesday.
"My family has been a devotee of Bhole Baba for the past 5-6 years and we had never imagined something like this could happen. I still don't know whether my relatives are alive or dead. I have received no help from the authorities. They just keep referring me from one hospital to another," he said.
The bodies of the victims were sent to Etah, Aligarh, Agra and Mathura where the autopsy was carried out the whole night.
Asphyxia due to compression was the leading cause of death among the victims of the Hathras stampede who were taken to the district hospital in Etah on Tuesday, additional chief medical officer Dr Ram Mohan Tiwari said.
Police Circle officer (Sakeet area) Sanjay Kumar Singh said 21 of the 27 bodies brought to Etah government hospital were identified by midnight.