Overview

• Officials revised the toll to at least 40 dead, including nine children, after the crush at a campaign event in Karur for actor-turned-politician Joseph Vijay.
• Roughly 27,000 people arrived despite permission for about 10,000, with witnesses citing hours-long waits, extreme heat, and scarce water and police presence.
• Panic erupted during Vijay’s speech, with reports that spectators fell from a tree branch into the packed crowd as density left people with no room to move.
• About 58 people were hospitalized, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered condolences for what he called a deeply saddening incident.
• The state opened a formal investigation and set compensation for victims’ families, while Vijay announced 2 million rupees per bereaved family from his party.