A stampede in a temple in Northern India resulted in 63 deaths and dozens of injuries.

Surprisingly the dead comprised entirely of children and women while no adult male have been identified among the dead bodies. 37 of the dead were children while remaining 26 were women.

Thousands of loyal devotees had come to the Hindu temple for a religious festival, in Pratapgarh which lies 400 miles southeast of New Delhi. Free meals and clothing were to be given at the temple which is owned by a popular holy man in the area. The occasion marked the death anniversary of Kripalu Maharaj’s wife.

The stampede broke out when food and clothes were being distributed among the people. The kids and the women were in the front while the men were mostly concentrated at the back of the crowd. During the distribution, a mob tried to move forward to get the free clothing. The push was so forceful that it knocked down one of the gates of the temple at the front.

The gate fell on the women and children in the front rows which resulted in many deaths while others were run over by people trying to flee the falling gate.

Stampedes are a common scene at hundreds of temples distributed all over India and their victims usually are the children and the women. They occur at small temples where congregation is huge but the space is limited. Just a couple of years back, a stampede occurred in a secluded temple in the Himalayan hills which resulted in 145 deaths.