42 die as flood victims stampede
Nearly 3,000 people lined up before dawn along a narrow street leading to a school where they were to collect coupons for provisions, R Nataraj, the city’s police chief, said.
Police asked the crowd to leave, saying the centre would not open for hours, but the victims demanded the vouchers be distributed immediately.
When the school gates opened to let in a vehicle, the crowd mistakenly assumed the centre had opened and surged forward, he said.
A stampede ensued, crushing those in the front, mostly women. At least 11 policemen who tried to control the crowd were among the injured.
“We had posted several policemen at all relief centres expecting such commotion, but what happened here was beyond the power of all,” Mr Nataraj said.
A witness said people became restless after waiting for hours and began to rush forward after seeing some movement at the head of the line.
S Hameed, who lives nearby, said: “Many jostled with each other to get ahead, but nobody knew who started the whole thing.”
The government of Tamil Nadu state said it had asked a retired High Court judge to head an inquiry into the cause of the incident.
The flood victims, whose homes have been damaged or destroyed by recent downpours, lined up to collect coupons that would have helped them get rice, kerosene and 18 in cash.
The relief centre in a government-run school did not house victims.
This was the second such incident in Madras, the capital of Tamil Nadu state, in the past two months. In November, six people were killed and 20 injured in another stampede near a relief camp in a northern district.
At least 430 people have been killed and half a million left homeless in the state by storms that have pounded it since October.
Tamil Nadu receives most of its annual rainfall from the northeast monsoon, which is often accompanied by cyclonic activity in the Bay of Bengal.
