At least 16 people were crushed to death and dozens of others injured in a stampede at a religious ceremony close to the river Ganga in northern India on Tuesday, officials said.
"So far 14 women and two men have died, and 46 others are seriously injured," D. Santhel Pandiyan, district magistrate in the nearby town of Haridwar, told AFP by telephone from the accident site.
"More worshippers turned up than the place could accommodate and so the stampede occurred."
Hemant Sahu, media contact for the event organisers, said that tens of thousands of devotees crowded towards a fire at the Shantikunj ashram to make offerings.
"When the big ritual was going on, too many people rushed forward to make their offerings to the holy fire and the crowd got out of control," he said.
"A couple of people fell down and that is what happened. We think the death toll may still go up."
The Press Trust of India news agency reported the stampede broke out when worshippers tried to enter the ashram to take part in ceremonies to celebrate 100 years since the birth of its revered founder Shreeram Sharma.
The police chief of Uttarakand state said that 50,000 people had gathered for the festival, and that many had tried to congregate at the same time in an area where fires had been lit on ritual grounds.
"As a result there were suffocations and then a stampede," Jyoti Swaroop Pandey told reporters, adding that the five-day celebrations had been cut short and an inquiry launched.