Stampede at Bangladesh religious event kills 10

DHAKA, Bangladesh, March 27 (UPI) -- A stampede at a Hindu religious ritual near Dhaka, Bangladesh, early Friday killed 10 people and injured dozens, police said.

The incident occurred in Narayanganj during an annual bathing ritual called the Astami Snan on the Brahamaputra River, which Police Superintendent Khandekar Mahid Uddin said drew over a million people.

Uddin said three men and seven women died after thousands of people crowded onto a pathway, which leads to 16 riverbank platforms used for bathing, when a rumor spread that a bridge was collapsing.

"There was a rush from the devotees. Though the bridge had not collapsed, the rumor spread a feeling of fear," Uddin said.

He speculated that crowds were larger than usual this year because the public holiday coincided with a weekend. About eight percent of the country's population of 156 million is Hindu.

Kajal Debnath of the Hindu organization Puja Observation Committee of Bangladesh told the New York Times that much of the space along the pilgrimage route was taken by small shops selling goods, narrowing the pathway to the river.