Seven die in India festival stampede

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Sagar island hosts the festival, the Gangasagar Mela.

Seven Hindu pilgrims have been killed in a stampede at a religious festival on the Ganges river in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, reports BBC.
More than 20 pilgrims have been injured in the incident which took place when hundreds of devotees tried to board a ferry to take them to the festival
Every winter, Sagar island hosts the festival, the Gangasagar Mela. Pilgrims bathe in the river.
Tens of thousands of devotees also pray at the temple of the sage Kapil Muni.
Separately, hundreds of thousands of devotees bathed in the cold waters of the Ganges river at the beginning of a three month-long Hindu religious festival, Kumbh Mela, in the town of Haridwar in north India.
Thursday morning's stampede in West Bengal was triggered by a rush of pilgrims to the Gangasagar Mela.
"These pilgrims were trying to board the first boat service to the Sagar Islands at Kakdwip when the stampede started. It is very unfortunate," senior local official Khalil Ahmed said.
Police official Surojit Kar Purokayastha said, "The rush [of pilgrims to take places on a ferry] became a stampede and seven people were killed." Five of the dead were women, and two were children, the police said.
In October 2008, 224 people were killed in a stampede at a Hindu temple in the north-western Indian state of Rajasthan.