Nearly 121 people, mostly women, were crushed to death at a Hindu religious congregation on Tuesday. Government officials say the incident occurred due to overcrowding.

As per police reports, more than 250,000 people attended the event held in a village in the Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh state when permission was only given for 80,000 people, AFP reported.

The village is just 200 kilometres southeast of New Delhi.

On Wednesday morning, hours after the event, discarded clothing and lost shoes were scattered across the muddy site, an open field alongside a highway. 

The incident occurred when the religious preacher, also known as 'Bhole Baba', was leaving in his car. Thousands of devotees ran behind the car, shouting his name and wanting to collect the soil from the footseps of the preacher, causing them to topple over the ones sitting. 

Some people also fell into an adjacent field of slush and mud, leading to them getting trampled there.

According to the local media, the police are in search of the preacher.

The witnesses to the event reported that people fell on top of each other as they tumbled down a slope into a water-logged ditch.

Deadly incidents are common at places of worship during major religious festivals in India, the biggest of which prompt millions of devotees to make pilgrimages to holy sites.

A police officer on duty, Sheela Maurya, said that "everyone—the entire crowd, including women and children—all left from the event site at once. There wasn´t enough space, and everyone just fell on top of each other."