Death toll in India temple stampede rises to 109

NEW DELHI -- An official says the death toll from a stampede near a temple in central India has risen to 109 after many of the injured succumbed to injuries.

Thousands of Hindu pilgrims were crossing a bridge leading to a temple in Madhya Pradesh state on Sunday when they panicked at rumors the bridge would collapse, triggering a stampede.

The district medical officer R.S. Gupta said Monday that autopsies had been carried out on 109 bodies by late Sunday.

Hundreds of thousands of devotees had thronged the remote Ratangarh village temple to honor the Hindu mother goddess Durga on the last day of the popular 10-day Navaratra festival.

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