Nearly 150 pilgrims, many of them children, were trampled to death on a hillside in northern India on Sunday, after rumors of a landslide fueled a stampede, local officials said. Thousands of Hindu pilgrims had traveled to Naina Devi, a hilltop temple in the state of Himachal Pradesh, for a festival celebrating the Hindu mother goddess.
Heavy rains in the morning led many to leave the serpentine lines on the hillside to take cover in a shelter, local officials said. Visitors said large stones began sliding down the hillside in the late morning, leading to panic in the crowd.