January 04, 2008	Friday	Zilhaj 24, 1428

NEW DELHI: Six people including a boy of eight were trampled to death and 12 people injured in a stampede at a Hindu temple in southern India on Thursday, a state government official said.

The stampede happened before dawn at a hill-top temple devoted to the goddess Durga near Vijayawada, a city about 250km from Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh state.

Around 100,000 people had gathered at the temple for the last day of a three-day religious festival, Sundara Kumar, a senior state government official, said by telephone from the site.

“There was a sudden rush of people on a narrow platform between two hillocks,” he said.

Kumar, who was leading an inquiry into the incident, said no one was being blamed for now.

Media reports said there was insufficient security to control the crowds. In 2005, about 265 pilgrims were killed at a stampede near a temple in the western state of Maharashtra.—Reuters