![What caused the deadly crowd crush in Hathras, India?](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/AFP__20240703__36288K4__v1__HighRes__IndiaReligionAccidentStampede-1719999853.jpg?resize=1920%2C1440)
What caused the deadly crowd crush in Hathras, India?
Al Jazeera
At least 120 people, mostly women, have died at a religious gathering for Hindu guru Bhole Baba.
At least 121 people, the vast majority of them women, have died in a crowd crush on Tuesday in India’s Hathras district, at a religious gathering for the Hindu guru, Bhole Baba.
Here is all we know about the incident which took place on Tuesday afternoon:
A large crowd of 250,000 devotees of the religious leader Suraj Pal, also known as Bhole Baba, gathered for a satsang – prayer meeting – in a village in Hathras on Tuesday. About 80,000 of them had been allowed to enter a field serving as the main venue for the prayer meeting.
Many people had gathered in a makeshift tent where the prayer meeting was taking place, pitched atop muddy terrain.
Bhole is a Dalit, a group of people at the bottom of India’s caste system. Many of his followers are also from so-called “lower castes”, and are female or poor.