Stampede, Fire Kill Hundreds Near Indian Temple

[seriousstan]

BOMBAY (Reuters) - As many as 300 Hindu pilgrims, including women and children, may have been crushed or burned to death in a stampede and fire near a temple in western India Tuesday, the district's top official said. A fire broke out in roadside stalls when more than 150,000 people were on an annual pilgrimage to the popular Mandher Devi temple, on a hilltop near Wai, about 160 miles southeast of Bombay, witnesses said.

Scores were crushed to death on the steep and narrow hill path leading to the temple and many others were charred, they said.

Reporters saw at least 100 bodies at the site.

"We cannot confirm it, but it appears that 250 to 300 people are dead," Subbarao Patil, district collector for Satara district where the temple is located, told a correspondent for Asia News International television
http://reuters.myway.com/article/20050125/2005-01-25T142855Z_01_SP36298_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-INDIA-STAMPEDE-DC.html

[IronLionZion]

1. That's a shame

it happens all the time in India. More people always die from the stampede than the fire.

they really need emergency/disaster education in that country. Kids need to be taught from an early age what to do in situations like that and they will remember it for life.

[egoprofit]

2. yep... what's up with that???

people just die... so many of them, maybe they should stay away from that pilgrim stuff... it's bad for their health.