More than a 140 worshippers were killed and an equal number
injured in a stampede at a Hindu temple in India's north-western state of
Rajasthan on Tuesday, police and news reports said.
The stampede occurred at the Chamunda temple atop a hill in
the Mehrangarh area near Jodhpur
city, 350 kilometres west of the state capital Jaipur.
"According to the information we have from government
hospitals where the victims were moved, more than 140 people, mostly men were
killed," Moti Ram, an officer at the Jodhpur
police control room said by telephone.
"The death toll could rise further as several of the
150 injured are in a serious condition. There are also some injured who were
taken to private hospitals, who we yet have to take into account," he
added.
Police said a huge crowd of 20,000 devotees had gathered on
the occasion of the nine-day Navratri festival which began Tuesday and the
stampede occurred in the men's queue as people tried to rush in to beat the
crowd.
Some devotees slipped on a part of the 2-kilometre long
route to the temple triggering the stampede.
"People there started falling on each other starting
the stampede. A majority of those killed died due to suffocation as a result of
the stampede," Ram said.
The road approaching the temple was narrow and there were
not enough police and security posted at the 15th-century temple, which is
dedicated to Chamunda Devi, a form of the goddess Durga.
But state Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria maintained there
was sufficient police deployment.
"Enough police deployment was ensured to avoid an
eventuality but there was a huge rush in the queue for men and some people
slipped on the slope that led to the stampede," Kataria told reporters in
Jaipur.
Local media reported that the panic was set off by rumours
circulating in the crowds that explosives had been planted near the temple.
"There were at least 10,000 people when the incident
occurred at around 5:30 am. I suddenly saw people running and falling on each
other. There was complete chaos," Sharat, a witness, told IANS news
agency.
Some witnesses told the police that a wall of the temple had
also collapsed due to pressure from the large number of devotees.
Television footage showed dozens of bodies lying on the
footpath as frantic people tried to revive relatives who lost consciousness,
picking up the injured and rushing them to ambulances.
Some people ran helter-skelter in the melee to locate their
kin. "I had come here with my
grandfather. I haven't found him. I pray to God that he is alright," a
distraught devotee from Jaipur told the PTI news agency as he proceeded towards
the nearest hospital.
The sight at the local hospital was equally heart-rending.
People lay writhing in pain as the medical staff found themselves caught in an
emergency situation in the morning hours with low staff.
In August, a stampede near a mountaintop Hindu temple in
northern Himachal Pradesh state killed 145 people.
In January 2005, more than 260 Hindu pilgrims, including
several children, were killed in a stampede in a temple in western Maharashtra state.
