63 dead in stampede over food at Indian temple

Another 28 were injured in the accident inside the hermitage of Hindu spiritual guru Kripaluji Maharaj in the Pratapgarh district, 180 kilometers south-east of the state capital, Lucknow.
Senior district official KS Charan told reporters that 63 bodies were recovered from the site and more people might have been killed.
The majority of the dead were children and women, the official said, adding that the stampede had claimed most of its victims from the "weakest" of the crowd.
Local police said panic struck as hundreds of poor villagers lunged for free food, utensils and clothes being distributed by the hermitage on the occasion of the anniversary of the death of the guru's wife.
Amid the thronging crowd, estimated at more than 10,000 people, a gate under construction in the compound "suddenly gave way," triggering the stampede, police official Brij Lal told the IANS news agency.
Some devotees alleged that police used batons to disperse the crowds, making the situation worse.
The annual event was particularly well-attended this year "because of the prior announcement that some utensils would also be distributed along with lunch," local lawmaker Raghuraj Pratap Singh said.
The injured were moved to hospitals in Pratapgarh and the nearby Allahabad district. Police and administrative officials were engaged in rescue and relief efforts at the site.
Temple stampedes are not uncommon in India, where huge crowds gather to pray on auspicious days at complexes where the approach roads and entrances are usually narrow.
In 2008, more than 380 people were killed in stampedes and scores injured in two Hindu temples in the northern states of Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.
In January 2005, more than 260 Hindu pilgrims, including several children, were killed in a stampede in a temple in the western state of Maharashtra.