50 Uttar Pradesh people killed in MP stampede

At least 50 people from Uttar Pradesh were killed in the Ratangarh temple stampede in Madhya Pradesh's Datia district Sunday, officials said Tuesday.

While there were unconfirmed reports of casualties from the Orai-Jalaun area, the district authorities have now confirmed that 50 people, which included 33 women and children, died in the tragedy.

While eight people from the Khursa village died in the stampede, people from Makrandpur, Ata, Kamtha, Lohargaon, Jamrohi, Konch, Himmatpur and six more villages of Jalaun perished in the tragdy, an official told IANS.

Officials said the bodies were brought back from Datia after post-mortem examination and many of the bodies have been claimed and cremated subsequently.

In a related incident, five people were killed and over a dozen injured in a road mishap Monday when the tractor trolley they were returning on from the Ratangarh temple met with an accident near Jhansi.

The temple at Ratangarh is located in a forested part of Datia district, 390 km north of Madhya Pradesh's capital Bhopal and 55 km from Datia town.

Most of the victims were crushed by a throng of pilgrims who began to flee a bridge over the Sindh river following a rumour that it was collapsing. Women and children were trampled in the stampede while many people jumped or fell into the river.