At least 35 feared dead in Rajasthan temple stampede

Posted 10 6 2008 6:46PM

JODHPUR, India (Reuters) - At least 35 people died from a stampede at a Hindu temple in Rajasthan, officials said on Tuesday.

The stampede occurred at the Chamunda temple near the historic town of Jodhpur, as authorities tried to stop pilgrims from entering the temple to make way for a VIP, a witness said.

Local television showed volunteers carrying bodies and trying to revive them on the street.

One child cried over her father's lifeless body, wailing "Daddy, please get up".

Bodies were piled high in a local hospital, with the injured writhing in pain as medical staff rushed to help, a Reuters photographer said.

"We have news of at least 35 people dead and more than 150 people injured," Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria told reporters.

Last month, a stampede outside a mountaintop Hindu temple in northern India killed at least 145 pilgrims.

Authorities ordered an investigation into that disaster, which occurred after rumours of a landslide triggered panic among pilgrims who ran down a narrow mountain trail from the Naina Devi temple in Himachal Pradesh, only to meet thousands of people walking up.

In January 2005, at least 265 Hindu pilgrims, including several women and children, were killed near a remote temple in Maharashtra.