Indian actor-politician's aides charged after rally stampede kills 40

CHENNAI - Police charged three close aides of a popular actor and politician with culpable homicide and negligence on Sunday after a stampede at his rally in southern India killed at least 40 people, officials said.

Some 27,000 people thronged a public road in Tamil Nadu state in the hope of seeing the politician, known by the single name of Vijay, on Saturday but panic broke out, triggering a deadly crush.

Such crowd incidents happen frequently during mass gatherings in India and are often blamed on lax safety measures.

Police filed a case against three senior members of Vijay's party, whom they identified as Bussy Anand, G.R. Nirmal Kumar and V.P. Mathiyazhagan.

"A case has been registered and the investigation will reveal all who are involved," senior police officer S. Davidson Devasirvatham told reporters.

All three have been charged with "culpable homicide not amounting to murder" and negligent conduct endangering human life.

Witnesses cited hours of delays, insufficient police presence and people falling from a tree branch onto the audience as reasons contributing to the crush.

Vijay was addressing the rally in Karur district when the crowd surged suddenly, forcing him to halt his speech.

Videos on social media showed him tossing water bottles to supporters shortly before the panic broke out.

"I am at a loss for words to express the pain my heart endures," the 51-year-old star said in a statement on Sunday.

"This is indeed an irreparable loss for us," he said, adding that he would pay two million rupees ($22,000) to each of the victims' families as compensation.

Senior district official M. Thangavel said 40 people had been killed in the stampede, raising an earlier toll of 39.

Nine children were among the dead.

HUGE CROWDS

State police chief G. Venkataraman said crowds had been waiting for hours after the public was told that Vijay would arrive at the venue by noon.

"The crowds started coming in from 11 am. He came at 7:40 pm," Venkataraman told reporters. "The people lacked sufficient food and water under the hot sun."

He said 10,000 people were expected but about 27,000 had turned up.

Vijay launched his party in 2024 and has drawn huge crowds at campaign events ahead of state elections due next year.

Survivor B. Kanishka said he was "pushed down by the crowd all of a sudden".

"There was absolutely no space to move," he told the Hindu newspaper. "I subsequently fainted."

Others said poor organisation and an hours-long wait left people restless before the gathering spiralled out of control.

Another survivor, identified as Karthick, told the paper that the disaster could have been prevented "if people were not forced to wait for hours together".

"Poor planning and execution of the programme and lack of police personnel at the spot were also the reason," he said.

The Indian Express newspaper said panic spread after supporters who had climbed into a tree fell onto the crowd below.

In January, 30 people were killed in a crush at a major religious fair in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, and 121 were also killed during a Hindu prayer meeting in the same state last year.

Eleven fans were crushed to deathin the southern city of Bengaluru in June during celebrations for the local team's first Indian Premier League cricket title.