India on Tuesday launched a probe into a stampede which killed 18 women and children when a makeshift bridge collapsed at a Hindu festival, as devotees returned to pray at the scene of tragedy.
The incident in the eastern city of Patna, near the holy Ganges river, occurred late on Monday as tens of thousands of worshippers rushed to offer prayers to the setting sun as part of the Hindu ritual of Chhath.
Despite the disaster, large crowds again gathered at the site before sunrise to pray as part of the festival schedule, offering fruits to the gods, lighting candles and bathing in the sacred water.
Along the muddy riverbank, the remains of the rope and bamboo bridge were still in place and the ground was scattered with discarded clothes, home-made sweet offerings and abandoned shoes.
“Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has ordered a probe,” Bihar state home secretary Amir Subhani told reporters. “I visited the site last night and will go there again to talk to witness, police and others.”
Groups of stunned people, some sobbing and wailing, waited through the night outside the Patna Medical College and Hospital where many of the victims were taken. At least a dozen people were seriously injured.