Scores of Indian pilgrims, mainly women and children, were killed in a stampede at a temple in the western state of Maharashtra on Tuesday.
Conservative estimates put the death toll between 25 and 40, with another 80 to 100 injured, witnesses and officials said.
Witnesses said the stampede was triggered by a fire caused by a short circuit at the Mandhar Devi temple in the Wai area of the state’s Satara district.
There was no information on how many people died in the stampede and how many in the fire.
Wai is approximately 120km south-east of the Maharashtra capital, Mumbai. The temple is located on a hillock in a remote area, surrounded by narrow lanes that are blocked by makeshift stores selling flowers, sweets and coconuts.
About 250 000 pilgrims had gathered there on Tuesday, particularly auspicious because it was to be a full-moon night. There is only one motorable road leading to the temple, making it difficult for fire engines and ambulances to reach the site.
”There are very narrow roads around the temple. A fire was caused by a short circuit and quickly spread to an area where the pilgrims were cooking food. We heard gas cylinders exploding and at least 25 to 35 people were killed in that area itself,” Prashant Pawar, bureau chief of Lokmat Samachar newspaper, told Zee News TV.
A pilgrim died because of a short circuit at the temple and his enraged relatives started a fire, which spread rapidly, leading to panic and the stampede, the Zee report said.
Witness Vivek Patwardhan told New Delhi Television (NDTV) that more than 100 people died at the temple. Reporter Dinkar Zimbare of Loksatta newspaper told NDTV from a government hospital in Wai that 20 bodies and 100 injured pilgrims were brought to the hospital.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh said: ”I am rushing to the area. We have very little information. I have been told that 15 to 20 people died and another 20 to 25 people were injured.”
On August 27 2003, 41 pilgrims died and more than 170 others were injured after a stampede during the Kumbh Mela festival in the western city of Nashik.
Stampedes are disturbingly common during the Kumbh Mela or ”pitcher fair”, which is held in four Indian cities and attended by millions of the faithful. The worst was in February 1954 when 800 pilgrims died in northern Allahabad city.
In 1984, about 200 people were killed in a stampede at Haridwar in north India. Fifty pilgrims died in a Haridwar stampede in 1986, and at least 350 people were killed in Nashik in 1989. — Sapa-DPA