Press Releases
145 dead in temple festival stampede
At least 30 children were amongst the estimated 145 pilgrims who were killed in a stampede yesterday (3rd August) at a Himalayan hill shrine in northern India, apparently sparked off by rumours of a landslide. Officials said most of the people died of suffocation at the Naina Devi temple in Himachal Pradesh. A record attendance of tens of thousands of pilgrims had converged on the remote temple, about 90 miles from the state capital of Shimla, to celebrate Shravan Navratras, a nine-day festival that honours the Hindu goddess Shakti. Police said rumours of a landslide spread through the crowd in the morning, causing panic. Pilgrims at the shrine began to flee down a narrow path and collided with crowds walking towards the temple. With a concrete wall on one side and a vertical drop on the other, many were crushed to death. There were also reports that a railing at the shrine collapsed under the weight of the crowd, sending many people falling down a narrow, steep staircase. Witnesses reported dead pilgrims, many dressed in festive clothing, were left lying in the muddy two-mile road leading to the temple. Relief workers were being hampered by rain late last night. Television pictures showed bodies in the grounds of local hospitals, with grieving relatives moving among the dead. Police confirmed last night that 145 people had died and 50 were injured. CP Verma, the deputy police chief of Bilaspur, told Associated Press that "30 children and 38 women have been killed". Nearly 50,000 worshippers were expected every day during the festival, with the weekend bringing huge crowds to the foothills of the Himalayas. Stampedes at temples have occurred in the past at Indian religious festivals, when thousands of people gather to pray. In 2005, about 265 pilgrims were killed in a stampede near a temple in the western state of Maharashtra. Six people died in another accident at a Hindu festival in July in the eastern state of Orissa, where about a 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 gathering in central India when a railing broke at a temple, leading to a stampede among 100,000 devotees.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/04/india?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront
