LUCKNOW, Sept 14: At least 12 Hindu pilgrims died after being hit by a train in northern India, police said on Friday.The Kanwarias, or followers of the god Shiva the destroyer, had got off the train when it stopped on a bridge over a river near Saryu Ghat in Uttar Pradesh state, police officer J.K. Singh said.

Another train arrived on an adjacent track and ploughed into a group of about 16 people, while others leapt off the bridge into the river below.

“We have recovered 12 bodies. Some of them were badly cut by the train,” Singh said.

Witnesses said the other Kanwarias on the train then went on a rampage, knocking over stalls at a nearby station before police intervened to restore order.

Groups of orange-clad Kanwarias, who travel long distances to collect water from the Uttar Pradesh pilgrimage city of Haridwar to offer to statues of Shiva at their homes, are a familiar sight between July to September.—AFP