A stampede at a music festival in Southern India has Ki**ed four students.
The Tech Fest event took place at the Cochin University of Science and (CUSAT) in Kerala on Saturday (November 25).
State health minister Veena George confirmed in a series of Facebook posts that two boys and two girls died.
As well as four fatalities, a further 64 people were injured.
Ms George said 56 people were taken to hospital for treatment, with 17 children since discharged.
Five girls remain in critical condition in intensive care.
More than 100 ambulances were deployed to the scene.
Ahead of the horrifying crush, crowds gathered to watch a performance by famous Bollywood singer Nikhitha Gandhi.
Come 7pm, fans were waiting for the set to start at an auditorium on the university campus.
As per reports, the stampede ensued when it started to rain and some people outside the venue began rushing inside the auditorium for shelter.
‘The entry to the programme was restricted with passes,’ a faculty at the university reported. ‘But students and others who didn’t have passes also gathered on the campus premises.’
‘Suddenly, rain lashed out and the people thronging outside the auditorium barged into the auditorium. This led to the stampede,’ they explained.
A local police official added that a number of people were trampled when they slipped on some stairs.
In a statement posted to X (formerly Twitter), the Kerala state governor, Arif Mohammad Khan, said he was ‘deeply shocked and grieved to know about the sad demise of four students’ in the tragedy.
‘Heartfelt condolences to their families. Prayers for speedy recovery of injured,’ he added.
Singer Gandhi posted her own statement on Instagram, saying she was ‘heartbroken and devastated’ by what had happened.
‘Such an unfortunate incident took place before I could even leave for the venue for the performance,’ she penned.
‘No words are possibly enough to express this profound grief. My prayers go out to the families of the students.’
Kerala’s top elected official, Pinarayi Vijayan, has ordered an investigation into what happened.
A decade ago, one of the deadliest crowd crushes occurred in India.
At least 115 people were Ki**ed on the sidelines of a religious festival in central Madhya Pradesh state.
