120 die in India shrine stampede

HIMACHAL PRADESH, India, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- More than 120 religious pilgrims were trampled to death and 40 more were injured Sunday during a stampede in northern India, officials say.

Emergency workers said most of those killed were women and children from the Indian state of Punjab who were trampled to death when rumors of a landslide panicked a crowd at the hilltop Naina Devi temple in Himachal Pradesh, the Indo-Asian News Service reported.

The pilgrims had gathered at the temple as part of the 10-day Shravan Ashtami fair, in which devotees come to the shrine to commemorate the Hindu story of Sati, Lord Shiva's consort, whose eye, they say, fell to the ground there. The shrine is one of the most popular in the country.

Officials said a panic gripped the crowd when a false rumor spread that boulders were crashing down the side of the hill. Inclement weather hampered efforts by rescuers to reach the injured, most of whom were bunched about 1,300 feet from the temple, the news service said.