OVER 100 pilgrims, including women and children, died in a stampede while returning from one of India’s most popular Hindu festivals in southern Kerala state late last night.
Scores more were injured in the crush when an SUV ploughed into a throng of worshippers snaking their way along a narrow path in the hilly and thickly forested region after offering prayers at the Sabarimala shrine, police said.
The careening vehicle crushed a number of people, causing others to stumble which then caused a stampede. Rescue teams reached the spot but the hilly terrain, darkness and total disorder made relief operations difficult.
Television news channels broadcast chaotic scenes as dead bodies were carried to one side and the injured transported to nearby hospitals that struggled to cope as they were short of blood and medical supplies.
The annual, two-month Sabarimala festival attracts millions of worshippers to the remote temple dedicated to the Hindu deity, Ayyappan.
Yesterday’s ceremony marked the end of the festival after which some 150,000 pilgrims, all packed into a tight space, were walking down the precipitous pathway when the stampede occurred.
Similar stampedes are not uncommon at temples and holy sites across India where large crowds of tens of thousands gather in confined areas with little or no safety measures, adequate crowd control or sufficiently trained security personnel in case things go wrong.
Last March, 63 people died when poor villagers scrambled for free food and clothing being distributed at a Hindu temple in northern Uttar Pradesh province.
Two years earlier, 145 people were crushed to death at a remote Hindu temple in the Himalayan foothills.
This occurred when a frail railing along a mountainous path gave way under pressure from the large crowd.