India stampede leaves 21 dead

Thousands of people crowding into an Indian politician’s open-air birthday party caused a stampede today, killing 21 women and children, doctors said.

Thousands of people had gathered in a public park in Lucknow, the capital of India’s politically crucial Uttar Pradesh state, where supporters were celebrating the birthday of Lalji Tandon, the state's opposition leader, when the stampede began.

Twenty-eight people were injured, doctors said.

The dead included eight women, aged 45 to 60, and seven young girls who had lined up to receive saris as gifts, said Dr Lalit Saxena, one of the doctors who took the bodies to three city hospitals.

The stampede began when rumours spread through the crowd that there were no more saris to give away.