More than 100 Pilgrims Die in Hindu Temple Stampede

World | September 30, 2008, Tuesday // 00:00

More than 100 people have been crushed to death in a stampede that occurred at an Indian Hindu temple during a religious festival, telegraph.co.uk reported Tuesday.

Police claimed the jostle was caused by a collapsed barricade although witnesses said it because the officers had tried to make way for a VIP.

About 25,000 worshippers had gathered at a temple in Jodhpur's ancient hill-top Mehrangarh Fort in the western state of Rajasthan to mark the first day of Navratra, a Hindu festival to honour the Mother Goddess.

The death toll continues to rise rapidly, with more of the hundreds left seriously injured expected to die.

Local television footage showed devotees carrying limp bodies to police vehicles, with others desperately trying to resuscitate loved ones.

"We will definitely conduct an inquiry and if we find people were negligent, we will definitely take action," Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria said.

The stampede is the fourth such incident in India this year.

In August, around 150 Hindu worshippers died in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh sparked by rumours of an impending landslide.

Six people died in a similar accident at a popular Hindu festival in July in the state of Orissa.

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.

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