At least 149 dead in India temple stampede

At least 149 people were killed and scores injured on Tuesday in a frenzied stampede at a Hindu temple in western India, police said.

The disaster occurred as more than 25,000 worshippers clambered to reach the 15th-century Chamunda Devi temple in the hill-top Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur in the tourist state of Rajasthan.

The stampede came at the start of Navaratri, a nine-day Hindu festival which is one of the most important in the Hindu calendar and when crowds are particularly large.

"We can now say 149 people have died and around 60 are injured," Rajasthan's Home Secretary S.N. Thanvi told AFP.

AFP