Death toll in India temple stampede rises to 168

The death toll in a stampede of thousands of pilgrims at a Hindu temple here rose to 168 Tuesday, officials said, and a false rumor of a bomb was blamed for causing the panic.

The disaster occurred just as the doors of the temple were opened for worship at dawn for more than 12,000 people celebrating a key Hindu festival in this historic city.

Frantic people tried to revive unconscious devotees.

One child sat on the ground next to the body of a woman, rubbing her forehead and crying, “Mother! Mother!”

The temple floors were slick with coconut milk after thousands of devotees broke coconuts as religious offerings, causing pilgrims to slip and fall as they scrambled to escape, said Ramesh Vyas, a pilgrim who had been waiting to enter the temple.

Vyas said there was a rumor of a bomb and tensions were high because of a spate of bombings in the country. The latest explosions, Monday night in the western cities of Malegaon and Modasa, killed six people and wounded 45.

The pilgrims had crammed a narrow 1.25-mile path leading to the temple. There was a power outage and some pilgrims slipped on the ramp leading to the shrine, the Press Trust of India news agency quoted K.S. Bains, the director-general of police in Rajasthan state, as saying.

About 100 injured have been admitted to half a dozen hospitals in Jodhpur.