India stampede toll passes 100

The death toll from a stampede near a temple in central India has risen to 109.

Thousands of Hindu pilgrims were crossing a bridge leading to a temple in Madhya Pradesh state on Sunday when they panicked at rumours the bridge would collapse, triggering a stampede.

District medical officer RS Gupta said that post-mortem examinations had been carried out on 109 bodies by late yesterday.

Relatives of the dead crowded the state-run hospital in Datia district to take the bodies after the post-mortems. Others searched frantically for their relatives among the injured in the hospital.

Hundreds of thousands of devotees had thronged the remote Ratangarh village temple in Datia to honour the Hindu mother goddess Durga on the last day of the popular 10-day Navaratra festival.

It was not immediately clear how many people were on the two-lane bridge over the Sindh River in the Chambal region of Madhya Pradesh when the stampede started. Local media said some 500,000 people visited the temple and some were heading home when the rumours began.

Police wielding sticks had charged the crowd to contain the rush and people retaliated by throwing stones at the officers, DK Arya, deputy inspector general of police, said. One officer was badly injured.

The state has ordered a judicial inquiry.

Prime minister Manmohan Singh expressed "deep sorrow and shock over the loss of lives" and asked local officials to help the injured and the families of the dead.

“On this day of festivities, our hearts and prayers are with the victims and their families,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

AP