Blaster
01-16-2011, 06:31 AM
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/01/16/world/16india/16india-articleInline.jpg
NEW DELHI — More than 100 people were killed late Saturday night when a stampede broke out among 100,000 pilgrims walking to a southern Indian Hindu shrine.
Tens of thousands of pilgrims flock to the Sabarimala temple in the southern state of Kerala in January to celebrate Makara Jyothi, a holy day in mid-January. The temple sits along a narrow footpath in a heavily wooded, hilly area near the border with Tamil Nadu. A jeep swerved into the line of pilgrims, setting off a stampede, officials said.
D. Ramachandran, a local government official, said that a huge crowd of people were going to and from the temple on a narrow path, and that the people coming down from the temple were crushed by a stampede among the people trying to go up to the temple.
Deadly stampedes are relatively common during festivals at Indian temples, where sometimes millions of devotees flock to remote sites over a very short span of time, usually a few days. The sites are often along narrow footpaths or roads, and crowd control is usually nonexistent.
NEW DELHI — More than 100 people were killed late Saturday night when a stampede broke out among 100,000 pilgrims walking to a southern Indian Hindu shrine.
Tens of thousands of pilgrims flock to the Sabarimala temple in the southern state of Kerala in January to celebrate Makara Jyothi, a holy day in mid-January. The temple sits along a narrow footpath in a heavily wooded, hilly area near the border with Tamil Nadu. A jeep swerved into the line of pilgrims, setting off a stampede, officials said.
D. Ramachandran, a local government official, said that a huge crowd of people were going to and from the temple on a narrow path, and that the people coming down from the temple were crushed by a stampede among the people trying to go up to the temple.
Deadly stampedes are relatively common during festivals at Indian temples, where sometimes millions of devotees flock to remote sites over a very short span of time, usually a few days. The sites are often along narrow footpaths or roads, and crowd control is usually nonexistent.