Families recall Karur horror

Hari Vishnu’s family was inconsolable with grief on Sunday. His father struggled to fight back tears and his mother, who has a speech and hearing disability, laid motionless and emotionless on the floor.

- Divya Chandradbabu

Footwear scattered at the site of the stampede that broke out during TVK chief Vijay's rally.

(AFP)

Vishnu, all of 18 months old, was the youngest of the 40 people who were killed in a stampede during actor-politician Vijay’s political rally in Tamil Nadu's Karur district on Saturday. His aunt had taken him to the actor's rally where a massive crowd had gathered on the main road at Velusamy Nagar in Karur. Vishnu’s aunt lives in Velusamy Nagar.

“All of our family members who went to the rally are in the government hospital, my grandson died right here,” Vishnu’s grandmother Jayashri said. “My son (Vimal) saw my grandson on television and only then knew that he had died there.”

On Sunday, hundreds of foot-wears and party flags strewn across the ground narrated the horror that had unfolded a day ago. Of the 40 killed, 17 were women and nine were children. The deceased included a couple who were set to get married in October; a mother to a two-year-old girl; sole breadwinners of families; and children like Vishnu.