Karur, A large turnout at the Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) leader and actor Vijay’s campaign rally in Tamil Nadu’s Karur, on Saturday, turned into a devastating tragedy after a sudden crowd surge and chaos claimed at least 31 lives and left dozens injured, many of them critical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
State Health Minister Ma Subramanian said that the deceased victims include 16 women, nine men and six children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chief Minister M.K. Stalin will visit Karur on Sunday to meet the injured victims and review the relief efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rally at Velusamipuram began around 7:20 p.m. and initially drew a celebratory atmosphere, with thousands gathering to hear Vijay speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But panic erupted when a sudden power outage plunged the venue into near darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tightly packed crowd swayed and surged forward, triggering a stampede-like situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before the stampede incident, Vijay had been addressing local grievances, including illegal sand mining, mineral theft, and other issues affecting Karur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He criticised the state government sharply and predicted a change of power within the next six months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the festive mood quickly turned into chaos as people struggled to move out of the packed ground in darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Witnesses said the overcrowding and lack of ventilation caused many people, including children and elderly women, to faint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Parents were seen desperately carrying unconscious children through the crowd while volunteers tried to create space for ambulances and the police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rescue efforts faced difficulty because of blocked exits and the sheer number of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police, led by the Karur Superintendent of Police, K. Josh Thangiah, worked to stabilise the site of incident and open routes for emergency vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ambulances lined up at the venue and transported the injured to the Karur Government Medical College Hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Officials confirmed that the death toll climbed to 31 by now, and more than 40 people remain hospitalised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Doctors said several people are in critical condition, including three children, who have been admitted to the intensive care unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chief Minister Stalin, who has been closely monitoring the situation from Chennai, directed swift relief and medical assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Acting on his orders, Ministers Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi and Ma Subramanian rushed to Karur to oversee rescue and hospital care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additional DGP (law and Order), Davidson Devasirvatham, was also deployed to coordinate security and crowd control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Karur Government Hospital has been working through the night, described by officials as resembling a “war zone”, with doctors and paramedics treating the injured continuously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former Minister V. Senthil Balaji visited the injured and assessed emergency facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The state government has promised full support to the victims’ families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CM Stalin is scheduled to visit Karur on Sunday to personally meet those affected and review the response to the tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Questions are now being raised about the safety measures and crowd management at large political gatherings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
TVK has yet to issue an official statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Karur, A large turnout at the Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) leader and actor Vijay’s campaign rally in Tamil Nadu’s Karur, on Saturday, turned into a devastating tragedy after a sudden […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-news","has_no_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":562,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561\/revisions\/562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}