India orders probe into deadly temple stampede

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-04 16:45

Relatives react outside Anandpur Sahib Civil hospital in Himachal Pradesh, India, where the dead and injured of a temple stampede were taken Sunday, August 3, 2008. [Agencies]

CHANDIGARH, India - Indian authorities on Monday ordered a probe into possible organizational lapses that led to a stampede outside a mountaintop Hindu temple in northern India, killing at least 145 pilgrims.

Rumors of a landslide triggered a stampede on Sunday by pilgrims who ran down a narrow mountain trail from the temple in Himachal Pradesh state, only to meet thousands of people walking up in the opposite direction.

Most were trampled while dozens fell to their death after railings broke on the steep mountainside. More than 100 people were injured.

Officials said the number of pilgrims had risen sharply on the weekend at the Naina Devi temple, overwhelming security personnel.

"There are two routes leading to the temple and the barricades put up to streamline human traffic broke down and in the melee everything went haywire," Rakesh Kapoor, a senior government official, said.

"It was raining very heavily and the crowds had swelled immensely and as soon as the rain stopped people tried to rush ahead," Kapoor added. "Then rumors of a landslide started the stampede."

Thousands of worshippers had gathered at the temple in Bilaspur district, some 150 km (95 miles) north of the city of Chandigarh, during an annual festival.

At least 40 children and 45 women died in the stampede, police officers said.

Those who survived saw people jumping to their death from the hill, in a desperate attempt to save themselves from the stampede.

"There was a man with his child and he was shaking the child to see if he was alive, and all the time tears were flowing down his cheeks," survivor Vindo Bala, 52, told Reuters on Monday.

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