Death toll rises to 224 in Indian temple stampede

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-02 21:29

JODHPUR, India -- The death toll in a stampede at a Hindu temple rose Thursday to 224 as the government asked a retired judge to probe the cause of the disaster two days earlier in western India, police said.

A police officer carries a stampede victim at the Chamunda Devi temple inside the massive 15th century Mehrangarh fort in Jodhpur, India, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2008. The death toll rose Thursday to 224 and more than 150 injured when thousands of pilgrims stampeded Tuesday at a Hindu temple in the historic town of Jodhpur in western India, police said. [Agencies]

Another 57 injured were being treated in various hospitals in the historic city of Jodhpur in Rajasthan state, said senior police official Rajeev Dosat.

Dosat said the death toll went up after police found that several local people had taken their dead relatives home and later cremated them without informing authorities. Police contacted them subsequently.

A retired judge has been asked to head a government-ordered probe into the disaster, he said.

The disaster happened just as the doors of the temple were being opened for worship at dawn Tuesday for more than 12,000 people celebrating a key Hindu festival in the temple in a 15th century fort in Jodhpur.

A group of 200 pilgrims jostled with the crowd and tried to move ahead of others, causing some people to slip down the narrow 1.35-mile path leading to the temple, said Mahendra Singh Nagar, who heads a private trust that oversees the temple's operations.

False rumors of a bomb added to the chaos, worshippers said.

Tensions are high because India has been hit by a spate of recent bomb attacks.

Temple floors were also slick with coconut milk as thousands of devotees broke coconuts as religious offerings, causing pilgrims to slip and fall as they scrambled to escape, Nagar said.