At least 10 people, including six women were crushed to death in the middle of the night when a stampede broke out at a religious shrine in central India, media reports said Saturday. The victims had gathered outside the Muslim shrine of Hussain Tekri in Madhya Pradesh state to take part in a religious ceremony after midnight on Friday.
Police pushed the crowds back, causing people to fall down and get trampled to death in the dark, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency said. "Six women and four men were killed in the incident," police official Rajesh Vyas told PTI. The shrine attracts tens of thousands of people each year who believe that a visit can cure any illness.
Stampedes are a regular risk in India where policing and crowd control are often inadequate at temples and on pilgrimage routes, where throngs of fervent devotees congregate on auspicious occasions. The last major stampede was in January 2011 in the southern state of Kerala when more than 100 people died as panic spread among worshippers crossing mountainous terrain in the dark to visit a shrine.
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