Police in India say they have arrested a shopkeeper for axing to death a couple from a lower caste for not promptly paying a debt of 15 rupees (20 cent) for groceries.

Anxious relatives were searching for missing family members today in a northern India city that is home to one of the world’s largest religious gatherings after a stampede killed 36 people.

At least seven people have been killed and several others injured by an explosion at an illegal fireworks factory in northern India.

THE death toll from a stampede at a railway station after a huge political rally in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh rose to 16 yesterday when two more people died in hospital, police said.

The death toll in a stampede at a railroad station after a huge political rally in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh rose to 16 today when two more people died in hospital, police said.