Death toll rises to 224 in Indian temple stampede

INDIA: The death toll in a stampede at a Hindu temple rose Thursday to 224 as the government asked a retired judge to probe the cause of the disaster two days earlier in western India, police said.

Another 57 injured were being treated in various hospitals in the historic city of Jodhpur in Rajasthan state, said senior police official Rajeev Dosat.

Dosat said the death toll went up after police found that several local people had taken their dead relatives home and later cremated them without informing authorities. Police contacted them subsequently.

A retired judge has been asked to head a government-ordered probe into the disaster, he said.

The disaster happened just as the doors of the temple were being opened for worship at dawn Tuesday for more than 12,000 people celebrating a key Hindu festival in the temple in a 15th century fort in Jodhpur.

Jodhpur, Thursday, AFP