India: Pilgrims killed in stampede

A STAMPEDE of pilgrims returning from one of India's most popular Hindu festivals killed at least 102 people and injured 44 others.

The stampede was set off on Friday night when a group of pilgrims in a jeep drove into a crowd of worshippers walking along a narrow forest path as they returned from offering prayers at the hilltop Sabarimala shrine in the state of Kerala in southern India. All the injured were hospitalised, some in serious condition.

"We have recovered 102 bodies. The rescue work is almost over," a police official said.

The area was flooded with pilgrims and the stampede occurred nearly 50 miles northeast of the temple site.

The annual two-month festival attracts millions of worshippers to the remote temple to the Hindu deity Ayyappan.

Friday's ceremony marked the end of the festival, and an estimated 150,000 devotees were thought to have taken the narrow path out of the densely forested hills where the stampede took place.