Stampede kills 167 at Hindu temple in India

AT LEAST 167 people were killed and scores injured yesterday in a frenzied stampede at a Hindu temple in western India, police said.

The disaster occurred as more than 25,000 worshippers clambered to reach the 15th-century Chamunda Devi temple in the hilltop Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur in the state of Rajasthan.

The stampede came at the start of Navaratri, a nine-day festival that is one of the most important in the Hindu calendar and when crowds are particularly big.