India Stampede for Free Clothes Kills 63

(CBS/AP)  A senior local government official says that the death toll in a stampede at a temple in north India has risen to 63.

Ashok Kumar says dozens of people were also injured Thursday when thousands of people crowded into the compound of a temple in Kunda, a small town 112 miles southeast of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state.

Local police official Brij Lal says free clothes and utensils were being distributed at a religious function at the Ram Janki temple, which likely caused the stampede. As people jostled each other, a gate to the compound also fell, causing more injuries, he added.

The temple is located in a compound that belongs to Kripalu Maharaj, a popular local religious leader. Thousands were gathering at the temple to mark the anniversary of the death of the wife of the leader, Kripalu Maharaj, said Brij Lal, a senior local police official.

Deadly stampedes are a relatively common occurrence at temples in India, where large crowds - sometimes hundreds of thousands of people - congregate in small areas lacking facilities to control big gatherings.

In 2008, more than 145 people died in a stampede at a remote Hindu temple at the foothill of the Himalayas.

[barbaram99]

What they need to do is fix the problem or build safer schools with safety in mind. It only take one pupil to fall and the others fall as well to cause this. That is right. It sounds like their buildings are poorly done. They should go after the builders who cut corners. Not the school staff. They need more exits so this might not happen. There should be 2 or more ways out. If one exit is blocked others have a way out. More so with big class sizes.

[RedWings_ninety_one]

Ya, in order to pay off our debt, they could hire American construction companies to build those types of places according to US code.

[ToolMangler1]

Barbara, it has nothing to do with unsafe construction, It's the 'Gravity' of the situation. The only way so stop children from geing hurt in falls is to never let them learn to walk and to only build single story buildings.

[erasmus111]

One student falls and that causes a stampede. Wow.