Stampede, fire kill hundreds near Indian temple

As many as 300 Hindu pilgrims, including women and children, were crushed or burned to death in a stampede and subsequent fire near a temple in western India yesterday, the district's top official said.

Officials said a short-circuit may have sparked a fire in roadside stalls when nearly 300,000 people were on an annual pilgrimage to the popular Mandher Devi temple, on a hilltop near Wai, about 260 km southeast of Bombay.

Scores were crushed to death on the steep and narrow hill path leading to the temple and many others were charred, witnesses and officials said.

Reporters saw at least 100 bodies at the site.