Nov. 1 (UPI) — At least nine people died and more than 25 were injured in a stampede at a private Hindu temple in India’s southern state of Andhra Pradesh on Saturday morning.
The stampede happened when around 25,000 worshippers crowded into Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple in the Srikakulam district on Ekadashi, a sacred holiday. On Saturday, there are usually 3,000 parishioners, the Times of India reported.
The deceased included eight women and one boy, and two of the injured were in critical condition.
“The heavy rush of devotees led to overcrowding, resulting in injuries to many devotees, who were immediately rushed to nearby hospitals,” an official said, according to Xinhua.
Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has ordered an investigation into what happened at the 12-acre temple.
Organizers failed to inform the police in advance, which prevented adequate security, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said, according to News 18, a network co-owned by CNN.
The government will pay $2,500 to the families of the deceased and $563 to those of the injured, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said while noting that he was “pained by the stampede.”
Ekadashi means 11 in English and corresponds to the 11th day of every fortnight in the Hindu Lunar Calendar. During the holiday, devotees fast and offer prayers to Lord Vishnu.
On April 30, seven people died and six were injured when a newly constructed rain-soaked wall at Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy at Simhachalam temple in Visakhapatnam collapsed.
On Jan. 6, six people were killed and others injured in a stampede in Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh at a counter to distribute tickets for a special event at Lord Venkateswara temple at Tirumala.
Brian Setzer was on tour with the Stray Cats last year when he noticed the earliest signs of what was eventually diagnosed as an autoimmune disorder.
Now, it seems that disorder may be keeping Setzer off the road.
The Stray Cats said Tuesday they would be canceling their fall U.S. tour as Setzer, 66, battled a “serious illness.” The announcement comes months after Setzer’s diagnosis, although it’s not yet clear if this is a separate health issue.
“I know this affects so many people and I am devastated to have to deliver this news,” Setzer wrote Tuesday on X. “I’ve been trying everything I can to go on and do these shows, but it is just not possible.
“I’ve been looking forward so much to being on stage with my band mates again,” he said, “and playing for all of our amazing fans, and I’m gutted.”
The Stray Cats initially canceled the first two stops on their fall run, in Mount Pleasant, Mich., and Rockford, Ill., before scrapping the whole tour Tuesday. The band said refunds would be available at the point of purchase and did not announce any future tour dates.
Setzer first shared details about his unspecified autoimmune disease in February, writing on social media that, although the illness was not painful, it rendered him unable to play guitar.
“It feels like I am wearing a pair of gloves when I try to play,” he wrote, adding that the disease had for a time hindered his ability to accomplish everyday tasks like tying his shoes.
The artist said that he had been improving as he received care at “the best hospital in the world down the block from me,” the Mayo Clinic.
“I know I will beat this, it will just take some time,” he said. “I love you all.”
The Stray Cats, formed by Setzer, Lee Rocker and Slim Jim Phantom in 1979, have dissolved and re-formed several times over the decades. In 2019, the founding trio reunited to release a 40th anniversary album, aptly dubbed “40,” their first album in a quarter of a century.
On Friday, the band rolled out its first release since then. The pair of singles, consisting of original song “Stampede” and a cover of Eddie Cochran’s “Teenage Heaven,” were described on the band’s website as “loud, upbeat, and unmistakably The Stray Cats.”
“Jim and I cut both songs in Minneapolis at Terrarium Studios,” Setzer said in a statement posted to the site. “‘Stampede’ was an instrumental that I wrote lyrics for. I basically copied the guitar part, which was pretty ahead of its time to begin with, and ‘Teenage Heaven’ is one of the few Eddie Cochran songs that has not been covered to death.”
Rocker said “‘Stampede’ has the drive and intensity that brings me back to our first album,” and “‘Teenage Heaven’ is a classic Eddie Cochran song that we put our [Stray] Cats magic on.”
“The Cats are back and better than ever,” the bassist said.
Times staff writer Alexandra Del Rosario contributed to this report.
Karnataka state authorities singled out RCB, its partners and the state cricket for their mismanagement of stampede.
State authorities have blamed the management of India’s Royal Challengers Bengaluru cricket team for last month’s deadly stampede during celebrations for their first Indian Premier League (IPL) title.
Karnataka state authorities singled out the RCB, its partners and the state cricket association for their mismanagement of the event in a report made public on Thursday.
Eleven fans were crushed to death and more than 50 wounded in a stampede near the M Chinnaswamy Stadium after hundreds of thousands packed the streets in the southern city of Bengaluru on June 4, to cheer their hero Virat Kohli and other RCB team members.
The report said organisers had not submitted a “formal request” or provided enough detail for permission to be granted for the celebrations.
“Consequently, the permission was not granted,” it said.
The team went ahead with its victory parade despite police rejecting RCB’s request, according to the report.
The RCB did not offer any comment on the report.
An ambulance moves following the stampede outside the cricket stadium in Bengaluru on June 4 [Reuters]
Four people, including a senior executive at RCB, representatives of event organisers DNA, and the Karnataka State Cricket Association, were detained by police in the days following the stampede.
Players were parading the trophy near the stadium a day after their win over Punjab Kings in the final in Ahmedabad when the stampede occurred.
The dead were aged between 14 and 29.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it “absolutely heartrending”, and Kohli, who top-scored in the final, was “at a loss for words” after it unfolded.
India coach Gautam Gambhir said he was never a fan of roadshows, and the authorities should not have allowed the mass celebrations if they were not prepared.
Khan Younis, Gaza Strip – Eighteen-year-old Hani Hammad never imagined that his daily search for flour would end with him suffocating and being trampled.
On Wednesday morning, he left his tent in the al-Mawasi area of southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, where he’s been displaced from Rafah along with his seven siblings, heading to a food distribution point run by the much-criticised, United States-backed GHF.
“We left at dawn and stood among the thousands gathered. About 5am [02:00 GMT], they [US staff and Israeli army] signalled to open the gate, and people rushed forward,” Hani told Al Jazeera.
“The gate was open, but people were packed into a very narrow corridor leading to it – only about seven metres wide,” he said, struggling to catch his breath after arriving at Nasser Hospital gasping and barely conscious.
“I got in with the crowd with difficulty. Suddenly, American guards started spraying pepper spray and firing gas bombs, and people began stampeding through the corridor,” he added.
Hani Hamad was rushed unconscious to Nasser Hospital after the stampede near an aid site run by the controversial GHF [Abdullah Attar/Al Jazeera]
‘I collapsed. They trampled my face.’
“I felt like I was dying. I couldn’t move forward or backwards. I collapsed. My face and side were trampled. No one could pull me out. But God gave me a second chance,” Hani said.
He was rushed unconscious to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on a tuk-tuk and initially placed beside the bodies of others who had died, some from suffocation, others from bullet wounds.
“I was unconscious, couldn’t see or hear. I drifted in and out. They put me beside the dead. I thought I was one of them.”
Early Wednesday, 21 Palestinians were killed, including 15 by suffocation, while trying to collect food aid.
The incident occurred near a gate managed by the GHF in western Khan Younis. Dozens more were reportedly injured, with some still in intensive care.
Hani is the oldest of eight siblings who live next to their uncle’s tent – their parents remain in Jordan, where they travelled for medical treatment just a month before the war began.
“I feel like I carry a huge burden. We’ve endured the pressures of displacement and war without our parents and without any help from them,” he said.
Though he acknowledges that lining up for aid from the GHF is a major daily risk, he adds: “Our intense hunger pushes me to go every day.”
“There’s no other choice. I have no money to buy the overpriced goods available in the markets. My only option is to try my luck with aid distributions,” says the young man.
“Each time is a near-death experience. There’s gunfire, tanks, drones and attacks. What kind of aid distribution is this? We are exhausted, truly exhausted.”
“We’re shot at like animals”
Mohammed Abedin was left with a wounded leg after the stampede [Abdullah Attar/Al Jazeera]
Mohammed Abedin, 24, now lies in a hospital bed with a leg wound after heading to the same aid centre in Khan Younis early Wednesday.
For the first time, he says, he chose to turn back after sensing the danger of the crowd surge.
The young man, a first-year accounting student, arrived about 3am (00:00 GMT) at the distribution site, but he noticed that things looked different. The same site had been closed for two days before reopening.
“Before, we used to enter from several access points, and the entryway was wide. But this time, we were funnelled through one long, narrow corridor, fenced in with metal,” he says.
“When the gates opened, everyone rushed forward, and people began falling underfoot.”
Mohammed described a terrifying scene of people crushed against the metal barriers, screaming and gasping for help, as pepper spray and gas bombs were fired by American guards and quadcopters above.
“I was standing close to my cousin, watching. We decided not to go in because of the overwhelming numbers. I saw kids screaming, choking, men and youth trapped. No one could move forward or back.”
“The fenced corridor, with gas bombs raining down and people being pushed through, became a death trap,” he says.
Mohammed and his cousin tried to leave, but just as he thought he had made a wise choice, a quadcoptor shot him in the leg. His cousin was also injured.
“There’s always random gunfire from quadcaptors, tanks, or soldiers in the area. This time, I was the unlucky one,” he said. “But thank God, I survived.”
Mohammed reflects on the tragic situation faced by Palestinians, caught between starvation and death, forced to risk their lives for food. He supports his displaced family of nine, originally from Rafah and now sheltering in al-Mawasi.
“We dream daily of eating bread. I go for aid almost every day and usually return empty-handed. But the days I brought home just a few kilos of flour felt like ‘an eid’ [a celebration] for my family.”
Flour is the top priority for Mohammed, especially with Gaza being under siege for four months, the borders sealed, and humanitarian and commercial goods blocked by Israel.
“Bread is what drives me to risk death. There’s no alternative,” he said, awaiting surgery at Nasser Hospital to remove a bullet from his leg. “Has the world failed to provide a safe channel for aid delivery?”
“There’s no system, no organised relief, no police or UN intervention. We’re shot at like animals. If we don’t die of hunger, we die in the chaos and stampedes.”
In late May 2025, the GHF launched its aid distribution efforts in Gaza following an Israeli-imposed near-total blockade, which is still in effect and has prevented the entry of humanitarian supplies.
According to United Nations figures, at least 798 Palestinians have been killed since then while trying to reach or receive aid from the organisation’s distribution points.
Widespread criticism has emerged from UN agencies and rights organisations that argue the operation is politicised and endangers civilians. The UN has stated that the GHF’s operations violate humanitarian neutrality and are inherently unsafe, highlighted by the hundreds of deaths at their sites.
“Either we return with flour, or we don’t return at all”
‘More than 20 people died for a bag of flour,’ says Ziad Masad Mansour [Abdullah Attar/Al Jazeera]
Ziad Masad Mansour, 43, displaced with his wife and six children from central Gaza to al-Mawasi in Khan Younis after their home was destroyed in the war, is another frequent visitor to the aid lines.
“I head there at 10 at night and sleep on the sand like thousands of others. We endure the dust and humiliation,” said Mansour, who was wounded in the head on Wednesday.
“Sometimes I manage to get flour, sometimes a few cans. Other times, I return empty-handed. I even help others carry their bags in exchange for some food.”
“Yesterday, there was horrific crowding: gas bombs, bullets, and we were packed tightly in the narrow corridor. I was trying to escape the crush when I got shot in the head and lost consciousness.”
Mansour is now recovering at Nasser Hospital. “More than 20 people died today – for a bag of flour. What more is there to say?”
At least 21 Palestinians were killed at a US-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution site. GHF blamed armed “agitators” for the crush. Footage shows scores of people being rushed to the hospital, including numerous children.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says tear gas was fired on Wednesday at crowds of Palestinians at aid facility in Khan Younis.
At least 21 Palestinians have been killed in the latest carnage at the GHF aid distribution centre in southern Gaza, with most of the victims reported to have died in a stampede.
In an earlier statement, the GHF had said 19 victims were trampled and another was stabbed “amid a chaotic and dangerous surge”.
Without providing any evidence, it said the stampede had been provoked by “elements within the crowd – armed and affiliated with Hamas”.
The statement also claimed that GHF staff saw multiple weapons in the crowd and that one of its US contractors was threatened with a gun.
However, Palestinian authorities and witnesses have vehemently contested the GHF’s version of events.
Gaza’s Health Ministry released a statement saying 21 Palestinians had been killed at the GHF site on Wednesday. It noted that 15 of the victims died as a result of a stampede and suffocation after tear gas was fired at crowds of aid seekers.
“️For the first time, deaths have been recorded due to suffocation and the intense stampede of citizens at aid distribution centres,” the ministry added.
Speaking from Gaza City on Wednesday, Al Jazeera’s correspondent Hani Mahmoud said a witness had confirmed that tear gas was fired on the crowd, “causing mayhem and chaos”, which led to a stampede.
Palestinians carry aid supplies received from the US-backed GHF in the central Gaza Strip [File: Ramadan Abed/Reuters]
Meanwhile, a medical source at Nasser Hospital told the AFP news agency that the desperate and starving victims had been trying to receive food, but the main gate to the distribution centre had been closed.
“The Israeli occupation forces and the centre’s private security personnel opened fire on them, resulting in a large number of deaths and injuries,” they said.
Since the GHF started operating in the enclave in late May, at least 875 people have been killed trying to get food, according to the United Nations, which said on Tuesday that 674 of these deaths had occurred “in the vicinity of GHF sites”.
Speaking last week, UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said most of the casualties had suffered “gunshot injuries”.
Both the Israeli army and GHF contractors have been accused of carrying out the killings.
Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGOs Network, said on Wednesday that the GHF was guilty of gross mismanagement.
“People who flock in their thousands (to GHF sites) are hungry and exhausted, and they get squeezed into narrow places, amid shortages of aid and the absence of organisation and discipline by the GHF,” he said.
The latest deaths near aid distribution centres came as an Israeli attack on a camp of displaced people in al-Mawasi killed nine people.
In total, at least 43 Palestinians, including 21 people who were seeking aid, have been killed since dawn on Wednesday, according to medical sources.
At least 11 people died and dozens were injured in stampede outside Bengaluru stadium on Wednesday.
Police in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru have arrested four people after a stampede during the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) cricket team’s Indian Premier League victory celebrations killed 11 people and injured at least 47, local media reported.
Three people from an event management company and one official from the RCB team were arrested on Friday, according to local media reports.
Media outlet India Today said Nikhil Sosale, Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s head of marketing, was arrested at Bengaluru’s airport.
The Indian Express newspaper reported Sosale was arrested along with an executive from an event management company.
There was no immediate comment from RCB.
Tens of thousands of people had packed the streets of the city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka on Wednesday to welcome home their hero Virat Kohli and his RCB team after they beat Punjab Kings in the final of the Indian Premier League.
As the team was celebrating with the trophy inside a stadium in the city, thousands of people tried to push through the gates, leading to a stampede.
The franchise said later the incident was “unfortunate” and pledged one million Indian rupees ($11,655) to each family of the 11 fans who died.
The deaths have prompted widespread anger and top police officers have been suspended.
On Thursday during a news conference, Karnataka state’s chief minister Siddaramaiah, who only uses one name, criticised the suspended officials.
“These officers appear to be irresponsible and negligent and it has been decided to suspend them,” Siddaramaiah said.
The chief minister also said “legal action has been taken against the representatives of RCB,” as well as the event organisers and the state’s cricket association. He noted that a first information report, which marks the start of a police investigation, had been “registered against them”.
Kohli, who top-scored in the final, said he was “at a loss for words” after celebrations of a dream first IPL crown turned to tragedy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the accident “absolutely heartrending”.
Stampedes occur frequently in India, mainly at religious events, but it was the first time in 45 years that fans had died in a crush at a sporting event, local media said.
India’s head cricket coach Gautam Gambhir said on Thursday he did not support such roadshows and celebrations.
“Celebration is important. But more important than that is the life of any person. So, if we are not prepared or if we can’t handle the crowd in that way, then we might as well not have these roadshows,” Gambhir told reporters.
The pioneering IPL sold its broadcast rights in 2022 for five seasons to global media giants for an eye-popping $6.2bn, putting it up amongst the highest-ranked sport leagues in cost-per-match terms.
At least 11 people died in a stampede outside a cricket stadium in Bengaluru as crowds gathered to celebrate Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s first Indian Premier League title. Footage shows fans scaling fences and swarming the stadium.
