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At least 113 dead in India temple stampede: official

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-09-30 11:35

JODHPUR, India - At least 113 people were killed and scores injured Tuesday in a massive stampede at a Hindu temple in the western state of Rajasthan, a senior state official said.

In this image taken from NDTV, an Indian child wails as she attempts to revive a woman outside the Chamunda temple on the outskirts of Jodhpur, after a stampede at the temple in the western Indian state of Rajasthan. At least 113 people were killed and scores more injured Tuesday in the massive stampede at the Hindu temple. [Agencies]

More than 25,000 worshippers had gathered at the Chamunda Devi temple in Jodhpur's ancient hill-top Mehrangarh Fort at the start of a major Hindu festival.

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"The stampede began when people lost their footing and set off a chain reaction," Rajasthan's Home Secretary S.N. Thanvi said.

Officials said around 150 people were hurt, many of them seriously.

Television footage showed devotees carrying limp bodies to police vehicles, with others trying to resuscitate relatives and loved ones.

Temple crushes are common during religious festivities in India, where crowd control management is often rudimentary or non-existent.

Officials said Tuesday's stampede appeared to have started when a wall along the narrow path leading up to the temple collapsed, killing several people and then sparking widespread panic.

"I was to join my friend this morning to offer prayers but I was a little late," recalled a dazed-looking Jodhpur university student who gave his name as Manish.

"When I arrived, I saw chaos, people rushing around the place. I looked for my friend and after a while found him. He was unconscious but without serious injuries," Manish told AFP.

He said the path leading up to the temple shrine was very narrow with many people trying to get in at the time of the incident, as the auspicious time for offering prayers was about to begin.

Tuesday's stampede is the fourth such incident in India this year.

In August, around 150 Hindu worshippers died in a stampede in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. That was sparked by rumours of an impending landslide at a hill-top Hindu temple.

Six people died in a similar accident at a popular Hindu festival in July in the eastern state of Orissa, where about one million people had gathered in the town of Puri for an annual celebration.

In March, nine people were killed and many more injured at a religious gathering in central India when a railing broke at the temple premises, leading to a stampede among 100,000 devotees.

In one of India's deadliest ever stampedes, 257 people were killed during a Hindu pilgrimage in western Maharashtra state in January 2005.