An ambulance carrying stampede victims is parked in front of Calcutta Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. (AFP pic)KOLKATA: At least 19 people were killed and two dozen more injured Saturday in eastern India after a stampede that occurred during sudden rainfall at a Hindu religious gathering, officials and Indian media said.
West Bengal's chief minister Suvendhu Adhikari told reporters the fatalities included a seven-year-old girl, adding that 25 other people were injured outside a pavilion "in a stampede" at the Hindu festival of Durga Puja in the city of Kolkata.
A senior police official at the scene told AFP an announcement caused "commotion" after it started raining at night and the "crowd waiting outside the pandal (pavilion) was pushing, pulling and rushing forward and fell on the ground, leading to the stampede."
