Search for missing at India's temple stampede scene

Villagers search for relatives among the dead at the Willis Pierce Memorial hospital premises at Wai, in Satara yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

However, official figures put the death toll at 258.

Grieving relatives began to assemble at Wai from different parts of the state to collect dead bodies or search for the missing ones. Police sources say hundreds were still missing.

Officials say while 60 percent of bodies have been identified, many more were lying unclaimed at government hospitals in Satara and Wai.

"It is difficult to identify the bodies as in some cases entire families have perished," said a district official, adding many were charred beyond recognition.

Kalawati Shinde has come from Satara town looking for her sisters' family soon after hearing the news of the stampede. She could manage to trace her seven-year-old niece at a Wai hospital. Other family members are feared killed.

"My sister was her with her family, including in-laws. I have not been able to locate their bodies. I really don't know how the child escaped unhurt. I am absolutely shocked," said Shinde.

The state government has ordered a judicial inquiry into the stampede, one of the worst incidents of its kind in recent years, as confusion still persists on what led to the stampede.

Six bus-loads of injured were rushed to hospitals in Wai, Satara and other hospitals in neighbouring areas, district officials said at the site adding that the exact number of injured could not be ascertained immediately.

Till late on Tuesday night, bodies were being brought to hospitals. Most of the victims died of suffocation after being trampled over, doctors in hospitals said.

There are conflicting versions as to how the stampede took place. While officials said an electrical short circuit and a resultant explosion in a nearby transformer with loud bang led to panic among devotees, some witnesses said the coconut-breaking ceremony made the ground outside the temple doors slippery because of which some dancing pilgrims fell and were trampled by hordes of devotees.

Satara Police Superintendent CP Kumbhar said that news of people getting trampled over agitated the devotees in the long queue who turned violent and torched shops and pandals on the narrow route leading to the temple atop a hill.

The fire caused the gas cylinders, used for cooking as well as for lighting, to explode, adding panic among the pilgrims.

As the fire quickly spread, panicky devotees, numbering between 250,000 and 300,000, ran down the narrow path from the hill shrine, trampling large numbers, mainly women and children.

Many survivors complained of poor arrangements, saying policemen just did not know what to do and that it took a long time before bodies could be transported to hospitals in the region.

This was the second major temple disaster in the state after August 27, 2003 when 41 people were killed in a stampede while taking a dip at Kumbh Mela at Trimbekshwar near Nasik.

Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshm-ukh, who visited the site, along with Deputy Chief Minister RR Patil, announced ex-gratia of Rs one lakh to the next of kin of those killed and Rs 25,000 to seriously injured in the mishap.