Religious festival stampede kills at least 39 in India

THE collapse of a barricade set off a stampede of thousands of people at a Hindu religious festival in western India yesterday, killing at least 39 people, mostly women, and injuring 125 others.

The incident occurred as more than a million Hindu devotees assembled for a religious bathing festival in the Godavari River outside the town of Nasik, 110 miles north-east of Bombay.

Nasik Mayor Dashrath Patil said 39 people had been killed and at least 125 injured. Twenty-six of those killed were women, officials said, and two of the injured were police officers.