Stampede in India kills 16

A stampede killed 16 Hindu pilgrims and injured 50 others during a religious ceremony on the banks of the Ganges River in northern India, an official said.

The stampede, which took place at Haridwar in Uttrakhand state occurred after some of the pilgrims tripped and fell while those behind continued to push forward, Amit Chandola, a government spokesman, said, according to the Associated Press.

About 50,000 people had gathered for the festival on the river banks for a prayer ceremony in the foothills of the Himalayas. Many had congregated where fires had been lit on ritual ground.

"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," Heman Sahu, the media contact for the event said.

According to the AFP, stampedes are a regular risk in India, due to a lack of policing and crowd control. 

"As a result, there were suffocations and then a stampede," Jyoti Swaroop Pandey told reporters, the AFP reported. 

The five day celebrations have been cut short, and an inquiry has been launched. 

The large major stampede in the country, was in January in the southern state of Kerala, where more than 100 people died.

According to the Hindustan Times, stampedes in India have claimed nearly 1,000 lives in the last 10 years.