At least 15 women pilgrims were killed and 48 others injured on Wednesday in a stampede at a railway station in northern India, police and officials said. The women were travelling from eastern India to the northern Hindu holy town of Varanasi to pray on the banks of the Ganges river to mark a festive day when women worship their sons and husbands.
"There were thousands of women in two trains which had arrived at Mughalsarai and the stampede began because of confusion at the station," a railways spokesman said by telephone from the accident site.
"These people on hearing that their train to Varanasi was about to leave ran helter skelter and so this horrible accident occurred," he added. Police said seven of those injured were in critical condition. The victims have been hospitalised in Mughalsarai, 45 kilometres (28 miles) from Varanasi in northern Uttar Pradesh state.
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