Nearly 150 Die in Stampede at Indian Temple

NEW DELHI — Nearly 150 pilgrims, many of them children, were trampled to death at a Hindu temple in northern India on Sunday, after rumors of a landslide set off a stampede, local officials said.

Rahul Sharma/Associated Press

The aftermath of a stampede on a path at a mountaintop Hindu temple in northern India.

Thousands of pilgrims had traveled to Naina Devi, a hilltop temple in the state of Himachal Pradesh, for a festival celebrating a Hindu goddess.

A long line of pilgrims had formed along a stepped path leading up to the temple in the morning when heavy rains began. Many then tried to take shelter in a covered area, local officials said. At that point, according to witnesses, rumors that boulders were beginning to roll down the hillside led to panic in the crowd, and people began running downhill into those gathered to avoid the rain.

“Because so many pilgrims were gathered at the shelter, the way up and down was blocked,” said Suresh Kumar, a spokesman in the police control room at the temple. “When pilgrims started pushing down and the way was very crowded, the stampede took place.”

At least 40 children and 45 women were among the dead, police and health department officials said.
Thousands of worshippers had gathered at the temple in Bilaspur district to pray to a Hindu goddess during the annual festival.

Authorities said at last 48 people were injured, but this figure could rise as dozens of people were admitted to private clinics as well.

Witnesses said people jumped over broken railings and bodies to save themselves. Children lost their grip on their mothers' hands and were crushed under the feet of scared pilgrims.

"Many children and women were shouting for help and I saw people tumbling down the hillside," pilgrim Dev Swarup, 48, told Reuters by telephone from Bilaspur.

"There were rumours of boulders coming down on us and we all ran like the others," said Swarup, his voice choked with emotion.

The tragedy occurred early Sunday morning when rumours of a "landslide and falling rocks" set off a commotion in a 30,000-strong crowd of pilgrims who had gathered around the mountaintop shrine for the Shravan Ashtami Mela. Eyewitnesses said panicked devotees began running down the stone stairway while others were making their way up to the temple.

Many were literally trampled and crushed to death in the resulting stampede. Dozens of others fell over the side of the mountain when the precariously-constructed system of railings along the stairway collapsed, giving way at a number of places because of the crush of human bodies.

A survivor, Hakam Singh from Punjab, who lost two of his nieces, said: "A constant drizzle since the night before and the fog made the narrow and congested pathway very slippery. Many, mostly women, children and old people, slipped and fell and were trampled to death." He added that few policemen or officials were present. "There was hardly anyone to control the crowds or quell the wild rumours. The few policewallahs there seemed desperate to save their own lives," he said.

Most of the victims were from southwest Punjab and nearby areas of Haryana. Many worshippers of Naina Devi, one of 51 Shaktipeeth shrines in India, live there.