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Watch: Vijay distributes water bottles at Karur rally before tragic stampede that killed 39
Vijay paused his speech to arrange for an ambulance, and called out for a child who had gone missing during the rally.
The rally organised by actor-turned-politician Vijay for his political party Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) took a tragic turn after a stampede which killed at least 39 people on Saturday.
A massive crowd of supporters reached the venue of the rally in Karur on Saturday, with police saying that the turnout was higher than was expected.
In a video of the moments before the stampede shared by news agency PTI, the crowd can be seen becoming unmanageable. Amid the chaos, TVK chief Vijay distributed water bottles for those in the crowd who were experiencing suffocation.
Vijay also paused his speech to arrange for an ambulance, and called out for a child who had gone missing during the rally.
Speaking about the arrangements prior to the rally, Tamil Nadu DGP in-charge G Venkatraman said that the organisers had only anticipated an attendance of 10,000 people, on the basis of crowds at earlier TVK rallies headlined by Vijay.
“Earlier rallies of TVK had smaller crowds, but this time the turnout was far higher than expected. Though organisers had requested a large ground in Karur, anticipating about 10,000 people, nearly 27,000 gathered,” ANI quoted the DGP as saying.
39 people, including 10 children, lost their lives in the stampede incident. Venkatraman stated that there was a crowd surge after the official X handle of TVK said he would arrive at the rally venue by 12 noon.
He further said that while the permission had been sought for the time duration between 3 pm and 10 pm, the official TVK handle said Vijay would arrive at 12 pm. Following this, the crowd started coming in at 11 am.
“Permission (for the meeting) was sought for between 3 pm-10 pm. The TVK Twitter account said he will come at 12 and crowd started coming in from 11 AM. He came at 7.40 PM," the DGP said, adding that people had been standing there for hours without sufficient food and water.
