63 dead, dozens injured in India temple stampede

Lucknow: 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.

Ashok Kumar, a senior local government official,  says dozens of people were also injured Thursday when thousands of people crowded into the compound of a temple in Kunda, a small town 112 miles (180 kilometres) southeast of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state.

Local police official Brij Lal says free clothes and utensils were being distributed at a religious function at the Ram Janki temple, which likely caused the stampede.

The temple is located in a compound that belongs to Kripalu Maharaj, a popular local religious leader.

Free clothes and utensils were being distributed at a religious function at the Ram Janki temple, which likely caused the stampede, Lal said.

As people jostled each other, a gate to the compound also fell, causing more injuries, he added.

Deadly stampedes are a relatively common occurrence at temples in India, where large crowds - sometimes hundreds of thousands of people - congregate in small areas lacking facilities to control big gatherings.

In 2008, more than 145 people died in a stampede at a remote Hindu temple at the foothill of the Himalayas.