"Sixty-four bodies have been recovered from the accident site. Seventy-five persons have been hospitalised with injuries. Most of them are in three hospitals," Kodiuyeri Balakrishnan said.
The accident happened on Friday evening in a remote mountainous area during a pilgrimage to the Hindu shrine of Sabarimala that draws three to four million people each year, according to organisers.
"It was bus accident first," a spokesman for the Sabarmala Trust, Rahul Eashwar, told NDTV television.
The channel, citing local officials and fire department sources, said 46 bodies had been retrieved with rescue services being rushed to the isolated, densely forested site amid fears the toll could be much higher.
Stampedes at public events in India are common as large numbers of people crowd into congested areas. Panic can spread quickly and, with few safety regulations in place, the result is often lethal.
In March last year, police in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh blamed lax safety for the deaths of 63 people -- all of them women and children -- in a stampede outside a Hindu temple.
At least another 10 people died in a stampede at a temple in the state of Bihar in October. (M014/K004)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
