At least 10 crushed to death during religious gathering in Bangladesh

World Today

A Bangladeshi Hindu devotee cries as he sits next to bodies of victims killed in a stampede in Langalbandh. Local police chief Nazrul Islam said the stampede took place in a Hindu pilgrimage spot on the banks of the Brahmaputra river during an annual religious bathing ritual. (AP Photo/ A.M. Ahad)

At least 10 people were killed and dozens more injured on Friday in a stampede during a Hindu religious gathering in Bangladesh, police said.

The accident took place in Langalbandh, a Hindu pilgrimage spot on the banks of the Brahmaputra river, 12 miles southeast of capital Dhaka, according to police. The cause of the stampede was not immediately clear.

The annual religious bathing ritual in Bangladesh’s Narayanganj district draws thousands of Hindu devotees from Bangladesh and also neighboring India and Nepal.

A senior police official in the district said that more police had been sent to the festival site after the accident and the bathing ritual had resumed after the stampede had been controlled.

Report by The Associated Press