Stampede kills dozens at religious ceremony

At least 24 people have been killed and dozens injured in a stampede at a Hindu religious ceremony in northern India on Saturday, police said.

The stampede took place on the outskirts of Varanasi, a city in Uttar Pradesh state known for its temples, as people tried to cross a crowded bridge over the Ganges river.

Organisers were expecting 3,000 devotees at the ceremony, but more than 70,000 thronged the ashram of a local Hindu leader on the banks of the Ganges River, said police officer SK Bhagat.

“We were not prepared for such a large crowd,” Raj Bahadur, a spokesman for the organisers, told the AP news agency.

Millions of Hindus go to Varanasi every year to pray and wash away their sins by taking a dip in the river.

The stampede happened as police started turning back people from the overcrowded bridge, the Press Trust of India news agency cited Bahadur as saying. That triggered a rumour among the devotees that the bridge had collapsed, and they started running for safety, he said.

Nineteen people were killed on the spot and five others succumbed to their injuries at a hospital, said police officer Daljit Chaudhary. Four of the 20 injured people were still in serious condition at the hospital, he said.

Prime minister Narendra Modi said he was deeply saddened by the tragedy. “I have spoken to officials and asked them to ensure all possible help to those affected,” he tweeted.

Two police officers at the scene of the stampede said that officials were now struggling to deter pilgrims from entering a religious site near the bridge.

"We are deploying over 100 police officers to control the crowd. People are in a state of panic," Ravi Tyagi, a police officer, told Reuters news agency.

Deadly stampedes are fairly common during Indian religious festivals, where large crowds gather in small areas with few safety or crowd control measures.

In October 2013, a stampede in Madhya Pradesh state in central India killed more than 110 people, mostly women and children.

In July last year at least 27 people were killed and dozens injured in a stampede during a Hindu religious bathing festival, on a river bank in southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh state.