3 Women Killed In India Temple Stampede

Three women were killed and several other pilgrims injured in a stampede at a Hindu temple in India's western Rajasthan province on Monday.

The crush occurred at the entrance of the Khatu Shyam temple in Rajasthan's Sikar district early in the morning, according to officials.

A large number of devotees had gathered at the temple on the occasion of "Gyaras," considered an auspicious day in the Hindu calendar.

Nearly 70,000 to 80,000 people were present at the time of incident, Avichal Chaturvedi, a senior administrative official in Sikar, told Anadolu Agency.

He said four people, including men and women, have been hospitalized with minor injuries.

Ashok Gehlot, chief minister of Rajasthan, has ordered an investigation and compensation of 500,000 Indian rupees (around $6,200) for families of the deceased.

Stampedes are common at religious festivals in India, with hundreds and thousands of people gathering in confined spaces with poor implementation of crowd control measures.

This year started with 12 people being killed in a crush at a Hindu temple in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir on Jan. 1.

In the past decade, there have been two temple stampedes in India that claimed more than 100 lives each – one in the central Madhya Pradesh state that killed over 110 in 2013, while another left 102 dead in Kerala in 2012. -