Karur stampede: Death toll rises to 38, commission to investigate incident

Chennai (The Uttam Hindu): The death toll in the stampede in Karur, Tamil Nadu, has reached 38. Tamil Nadu Director General of Police (DGP) G. Venkataraman stated that the deceased included 12 men, 16 women, 5 boys, and 5 girls, totaling 10 children.

DGP G. Venkataraman addressed the media about the Karur incident. He said it was a very unfortunate incident. He said, "Following the incident, we immediately took action and deployed 2,000 police personnel, including three Inspectors General of Police, two Deputy Inspectors General of Police, and 10 Superintendents of Police, led by Additional Director General of Police Davidson."

He said the venue was allocated at the request of the Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) in light of their previous events. Although they had expected a crowd of about 10,000, approximately 27,000 turned up. 500 police officers were deployed for security during Vijay's campaign.

It's worth noting that the event was only permitted from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., but the crowd began gathering as early as 11 a.m. Vijay arrived at 7:40 p.m., and by then, the crowd hadn't received adequate water or food. The crowd continued to grow. The DGP stated that the police administration instructed party workers to maintain discipline within the crowd. However, an unexpected turnout doesn't mean we should have expected security deployments for 27,000 people.

He also informed that a commission of inquiry will investigate the causes of this tragic incident. The DGP stated that a one-member commission has been formed to investigate the incident. However, he declined to provide further details at this time.