10 killed in stampede near Ganges

Ten people were crushed to death and dozens were injured Tuesday in a stampede at a Hindu religious ceremony close to the river Ganges in India. The stampede occurred when worshippers tried to enter an ashram north of New Dehli.

By News Wires (text)

AFP - Ten people were crushed to death and many others injured in a stampede at a religious ceremony close to the river Ganges in northern India on Tuesday, organisers said.

"Ten people have been killed, and two dozen have been injured. We are treating all the injured in our own temporary hospital, set up on the premises," Hemant Sahu, media contact for the event organisers, told AFP.

Sahu said the accident occurred when tens of thousands of Hindu devotees outside the city of Haridwar crowded towards a fire to make offerings.

"When the big ritual was going on, too many people rushed forward to make their offerings to the holy fire and the crowd got out of control," he said.

"A couple of people fell down and that is what happened. We think the death toll may still go up."

As emergency teams and officials rushed to the scene, police were unable to confirm the death toll but the domestic Press Trust of India news agency said six people had died.

The agency reported that the stampede had broken out when a crowd of worshippers tried to enter the Shantikunj ashram to take part in a ritual to celebrate 100 years since the birth of the ashram's founder Shreeram Sharma.

Haridwar, 107 miles (173 kilometres) north of New Delhi where the Ganges emerges from the Himalayan mountains, is one of Hinduism's most sacred cities and among India's biggest pilgrim destinations.

Stampedes are a regular risk in India where policing and crowd control are often inadequate at temples and on pilgrimage routes, where throngs of fervent devotees congregate on auspicious occasions.

The last major stampede in India was in January in the southern state of Kerala when more than 100 people died as panic spread among worshippers crossing mountainous terrain in the dark to visit a shrine.

Stampedes in India are often triggered by rumours of a bomb blast, a collapsed wall or a car crash.

In March last year, police in Uttar Pradesh blamed lax safety for the deaths of 63 people -- all of them women and children -- in a stampede outside another Hindu temple.

At least another 10 people died in a stampede at a temple in the state of Bihar in October 2010.

The worst recent incident was in October 2008 when around 220 people died near a temple inside Jodhpur's famous Mehrangarh Fort.