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Deadliest stampede in years
26/01/2005 09:38 - (SA)
Satara - Grieving relatives prepared on Wednesday to cremate the bodies of more than 300 Hindu pilgrims, mainly women and children, who were trampled or burnt to death at a religious festival in western India.
Rescue workers were still working to collect bodies and determine the exact death toll from the stampede and raging fire Tuesday that engulfed shops lining the route to the hillside temple where the devotees were making a pilgrimage.
Government officials said more than 300 were confirmed killed but the exact toll of dead and injured was not yet known. Some officials said the number of injured was at least 200.
Additional Director General of Police V N Deshmukh said most of the 300 dead and injured were women and children who were jammed into a hill-top temple and narrow access road in the temple town of Wai in Satara district, 300km south of Bombay.
"Over 300 were killed and four buses full of injured people have been sent to various local hospitals in the district of Satara," Deshmukh said.
Fiery explosion
Television footage showed at least one fiery explosion followed by flames and black smoke billowing from the top of the hill where the temple dedicated to the Hindu goddess Mandhradevi was located.
People were seen fleeing for their lives down the slopes.
It was the deadliest stampede in years at a religious event in India where sometimes millions of people mass in perilous safety conditions.
It came nearly one month after the deadly tsunamis that ravaged southern Indian coastal areas, killing close to 11 000 and leaving nearly 5 700 missing. There was still confusion early on Wednesday surrounding the sequence of events in Wai where police said 300 000 to 400 000 people had gathered at the temple for the sighting of the full moon Tuesday and offerings to the local deity.
Senior district administrator Sharad Jadhav said in a statement there was "a lot of overcrowding which led to the initial stampede and at the same there was a short-circuit outside the temple complex which led to a fire, creating panic" and causing people to trample each other in the rush to flee.
The fire also caused some gas cylinders to explode.
But Deshmukh said the midday crush was triggered by a clash between pilgrims and a few shopkeepers. Some devotees attacked roadside food vendors leading to the fire and exploding gas cylinders, he said.
"The situation was aggravated by the fact there were thousands of pilgrims coming out of the temple and thousands trying to get into the temple," Deshmukh said.
Another witness said an overhead electric cable was believed to have fallen on some pilgrims, causing further panic.
Police cordoned off the access road to the temple to allow rescue workers to reach the dead and injured. "We have our police vehicles on the spot but we are finding it difficult to move the victims out," said Deshmukh.
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