Interceptor
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123 dead in India temple stampede
Monday, August 04, 2008
SHIMLA: At least 123 Hindu worshippers, many of them women and children, were killed on Sunday in a stampede at a religious festival in northern India, police and officials said.
The Press Trust of India news agency put the death toll from the accident at the Naina Devi temple in the hill state of Himachal Pradesh, where tens of thousands of people had gathered, at 145.
The stampede occurred after a railing at the popular shrine collapsed under the weight of devotees, sending many people falling down a narrow, steep staircase leading to the hilltop temple. A major panic and crush ensued.
Most people died of suffocation, and at least half the dead were women or children, officials said. "One hundred and twenty-three people have died," said DS Minhas, the state's additional director general of police. The PTI said the initial stampede may have been sparked by rumours of an impending landslide on the temple hill, which was being lashed with heavy rains.
The agency said 50 people had been injured. The bodies of devotees were piled up on the road leading to the temple, located about 150 kilometres from the state capital Shimla, witnesses said. The devotees were attending a religious festival at the Naina Devi Temple in the Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh state, said Bilaspur deputy police chief CP Verma.
At the Bilaspur hospital, rescue workers unloaded bodies wrapped in brown blankets from a truck and laid them in neat rows so they could be identified by relatives. "I rushed to the spot in search of my three children who had gone to pay obeisance at the hilltop shrine," Jawahar Khurana told the Press Trust of India news agency as he searched the bodies.
"I fail to understand why God was so cruel to us," he said. While police said 68 people died, PTI quoted local government officials as saying 145 people were killed, while the private NDTV news channel put the death toll at 130. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the different figures. Police said they used a cable car at the shrine to ferry some of the bodies down, and helicopters were brought in to take the wounded to hospitals.
Sunday was the second day of the festival and authorities sought to reassure other pilgrims. "There is no need to panic, everything is normalised now," Verma said. Police said nearly 50,000 worshippers were expected daily during the week-long festival, which began on Saturday. But many more had turned up on Sunday, leading to a massive rush at the centre in the foothills of the Himalayas.
123 dead in India temple stampede
Sad news indeed condolences to the Indians.
Monday, August 04, 2008
SHIMLA: At least 123 Hindu worshippers, many of them women and children, were killed on Sunday in a stampede at a religious festival in northern India, police and officials said.
The Press Trust of India news agency put the death toll from the accident at the Naina Devi temple in the hill state of Himachal Pradesh, where tens of thousands of people had gathered, at 145.
The stampede occurred after a railing at the popular shrine collapsed under the weight of devotees, sending many people falling down a narrow, steep staircase leading to the hilltop temple. A major panic and crush ensued.
Most people died of suffocation, and at least half the dead were women or children, officials said. "One hundred and twenty-three people have died," said DS Minhas, the state's additional director general of police. The PTI said the initial stampede may have been sparked by rumours of an impending landslide on the temple hill, which was being lashed with heavy rains.
The agency said 50 people had been injured. The bodies of devotees were piled up on the road leading to the temple, located about 150 kilometres from the state capital Shimla, witnesses said. The devotees were attending a religious festival at the Naina Devi Temple in the Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh state, said Bilaspur deputy police chief CP Verma.
At the Bilaspur hospital, rescue workers unloaded bodies wrapped in brown blankets from a truck and laid them in neat rows so they could be identified by relatives. "I rushed to the spot in search of my three children who had gone to pay obeisance at the hilltop shrine," Jawahar Khurana told the Press Trust of India news agency as he searched the bodies.
"I fail to understand why God was so cruel to us," he said. While police said 68 people died, PTI quoted local government officials as saying 145 people were killed, while the private NDTV news channel put the death toll at 130. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the different figures. Police said they used a cable car at the shrine to ferry some of the bodies down, and helicopters were brought in to take the wounded to hospitals.
Sunday was the second day of the festival and authorities sought to reassure other pilgrims. "There is no need to panic, everything is normalised now," Verma said. Police said nearly 50,000 worshippers were expected daily during the week-long festival, which began on Saturday. But many more had turned up on Sunday, leading to a massive rush at the centre in the foothills of the Himalayas.
123 dead in India temple stampede
Sad news indeed condolences to the Indians.
