Crushed worshippers

In a tragic turn of events, a party of worshippers set fire to shops surrounding a Hindu temple 150 miles south of Bombay yesterday, after they heard news that relatives and loved ones had been earlier trampled to death.
The incident occurred after an earlier festival event went awry when participants slipped and fell on spilt coconut juice, a part of the ceremony, then were trampled to death by some of the 300,000 strong crowds pushing forwards to make their own religious offerings. When their relatives heard that the events had been fatal they set fire to nearby structures, resulting in a further stamped and the loss of over 250 lives.

"The fires were set along a packed, narrow walkway lined with tea stalls and shops leading up a hill to the temple. They set off what witnesses said was a stampede of screaming crowds fleeing in horror.

Though his leg was injured in the stampede, Yerunkar, a 45 year old pilgrim from Bombay, said he helped pull 15 people alive from a mound of bodies. "But I couldn't find my wife Nirmala. I kept shouting for her,'' he said, weeping uncontrollably.

His wife of 22 years was among the dead. Yerunkar fainted when he identified her body at the Wai hospital."

-The Malaysia Star


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