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150 dead in Indian temple stampede

WAI, India, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- A stampede at a Hindu religious festival Tuesday in the western Indian state of Maharashtra killed as many as 150 people and injured hundreds.

The stampede occurred as more than 300,000 pilgrims were entering the Mandhar Devi temple about 150 miles from Bombay.

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Witnesses said the stampede was triggered by a mad scramble among the devotees to reach the temple by noon, a religiously significant time. But a local police inspector blamed a fire caused by an electrical short circuit in a makeshift shop, the BBC said.

Hundreds of injured devotees were rushed to nearby hospitals.

"The road leading to the temple is very narrow, and the local officials had made no arrangements to manage such a huge crowd," said an eyewitness.

Every year thousands of devotees come to the 300-year-old temple to pray on the day preceding a full moon.

At least 39 people died in August 2003 when devotees panicked and stampeded on the banks of a holy river 100 miles northeast of Bombay.

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