India, Sept. 28 -- At least 36 people, including six children and 16 women, died and dozens more were critically injured in a stampede at actor Vijay's political rally in Tamil Nadu's Karur on Saturday evening, as a crowd double the permitted size broke through barricades in sweltering heat.

State health minister Ma Subramanian confirmed the number of fatalities outside the Karur district government hospital, where most victims were brought dead. More than 50 others sustained severe injuries in the crush at Velusamypuram on the Karur-Erode highway.

"Most deaths were mainly because of suffocation," a doctor at Karur district hospital said, as medical facilities across the district were overwhelmed with hundreds of casualties rushed to bo...