How unfortunate that women and children had to die this way. They go to collect free food and clothing and die in the process. TGO
Refer to brief story below. Source: Associated Press
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) – Sixty-three people, all of them women and children, were crushed to death in a stampede on Thursday at a temple in northern India where a crowd had gathered for a religious festival.
“We have now counted all the bodies and they include 37 children and 26 women who had come to collect free gifts,” assistant superintendent of police S.P. Pathak told AFP by phone from the disaster site.
About 10,000 people had gathered at the Hindu temple in Pratapgarh, 650 kilometres (400 miles) southeast of New Delhi in Uttar Pradesh state, to collect free clothes and food being handed out by a local holy man, he said.
The stampede began when a large metal gate fell on to some of the devotees. Emergency vehicles and rescue teams rushed to the scene.
“The number of those injured is not very large and most of them have gone back home after the stampede,” Pathak said from the temple where wailing people could be heard.
He said not a single adult male had been crushed in the stampede as women and children were in the front of the surging crowd.
“They had come from all over the district,” the area deputy police chief told AFP.
