DEOGHAR, India, Aug. 10 (UPI) — At least 10 people died as thousands of people at a religious festival in Deoghar, India, rushed toward a temple as its doors opened early Monday.
Religious pilgrims rushed to enter the Baidyanath temple in eastern Jharkhand state, with water offerings from the Ganges River, police superintendent P. Murugan said, and trampled a number of people who had been sleeping under tents on the road. At least 15 others were injured, he said.
The festival honors the Hindu god Shiva, and comes during Shravani Mela, a month-long observance. The largest audiences during the festival come on Mondays; nearly 150,000 visited the temple on Aug. 3.
Stampede incidents during Indian religious observances are not uncommon; at least 27 were killed at a religious festival in southern Andhra Pradesh state in July, and 36 died in 2013 in the northern city of Allahabad, which hosts millions of pilgrims at the Kumbh Mela festival.
