Seven Hindu pilgrims have been killed in a stampede at a religious festival on the Ganges river in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. The incident took place when hundreds of devotees tried to climb into a ferry to take them to the festival to Sagar island, the police said.
Every winter, Sagar island hosts the festival, the Gangasagar Mela. Pilgrims bathe in the river.
Tens of thousands of devotees also pray at the temple of the sage Kapil Muni.
Separately, hundreds of thousands of devotees bathed in the cold waters of the Ganges river at the beginning of a three month-long Hindu religious festival, Kumbh Mela, in the northern city of Haridwar.
Thursday morning’s stampede in West Bengal was triggered by a rush of pilgrims.
“The rush [of pilgrims to take places on a ferry] became a stampede and seven people were killed,” police official Surojit Kar Purokayastha said.
In October 2008, 224 people were killed in a stampede at a Hindu temple in the north-western Indian state of Rajasthan.