Kolkata: A stampede in eastern India killed six women yesterday as devotees returning from a religious festival rushed to get onto a jetty, a minister said. Some 1.5 million people had assembled at Gangasagar in West Bengal state to take a holy dip in the river on the occasion of the Hindu harvest festival of Makar Sakranti.
The devotees were on their way back from the two-day festival when the stampede broke out, local minister Manturam Pakhira said. "Six women have died in the stampede while they were trying to cross a jetty near Gangasagar," Pakhira said.Ten others were injured as the pilgrims rushed to board vessels to reach Kolkata, the state capital, he added.
