Death toll in temple stampede now 115

Outrage mounted in India on Monday after at least 115 devotees were crushed to death or drowned near a Hindu temple, the site of another deadly stampede only seven years ago.

As survivors of Sunday's tragedy on a bridge recounted how desperate mothers threw their children into the water below, authorities came under fire over policing levels amid claims the panic was aggravated by baton-charging police.

Medics were also battling to save the lives of 10 people classified as critically ill after the stampede in the town of Ratangarh in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.

"The death toll has now gone up to 115 and more than 110 injured," deputy police inspector-general D.K. Arya told AFP.

"Ten of those are in a very critical state."

The tragedy cast a long shadow over celebrations marking the end of one of the holiest festivals in the Hindu calendar.

Police said the panic had been sparked by rumors that the bridge was about to collapse.

Up to 400,000 devotees were already inside or around the temple when the stampede took place while there were about 20,000 people on the bridge, which spans the Sindh River.

Large crowds began converging on the site in early morning, according to witnesses, on the penultimate day of the nine-day Navaratri festival, dedicated to the worship of the Hindu goddess Durga.

Devotees thronging toward the temple across the long, concrete bridge panicked when some railings broke, Dilip Arya, a deputy inspector-general of police, told Reuters.

The disaster comes only seven years after another stampede outside the same temple, when more than 50 people were crushed to death while crossing the river, after which authorities built the bridge.

"Cops learnt no lessons from 2006 stampede," read a headline in The Hindustan Times, saying the tragedy "underlines the sheer ineptitude of the authorities' responsible for the safety and security" of devotees.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, a senior figure in the Bharatiya Janata Party, was facing calls to resign over the tragedy.

"Had there been adequate police, administration and health officials at the temple site, the loss of lives could have been averted," said Kantilal Bhuria, the leader of the Congress party in the state.

Manoj Sharma, one of the survivors, described a scene of total mayhem.

"People were jumping off the bridge to save themselves, but they could not swim against the tide. I also saw children being tossed from the bridge, only to be washed away," he told the Times of India.

"I saw a mother desperately trying to protect her baby amidst the swelling, rushing crowds. But both died before my eyes. It was the most horrific incident of my life."

Man Singh, a fruit seller who had set up shop near the temple, told how people caught up in the crush on the bridge tried to save themselves with the clothes of some of the female victims.

AFP-Reuters

(China Daily 10/15/2013 page11)